College Achievers: Harvey hammers it home at Penn State
South Elgin High School graduate Sean Harvey, an outside and opposite hitter for No. 16 Penn State University, was named Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA) player of the year.
Officially the Uvaldo Acosta Memorial Player of the Year, the 6-foot-7 sophomore from Bartlett earned it after leading the EIVA with a .324 hitting percentage, with 4.32 points and 3.57 kills per set, all among the top 28 players in NCAA men’s volleyball.
“It’s just a representation of all the work that me and my team have put in over the last two or three years,” Harvey said. “I like to say it’s more a reflection on our team than it is on me, because when you have guys at every position that can excel, it just opens up the court for me to do what I can do.”
After beating Princeton in the EIVA tournament finals on Saturday, Harvey had registered double-digit kills in 23 of the 28 matches he’d played with a high of 22 in a five-set win over Princeton.
Harvey had 18 kills and 15 digs in a five-set win over George Mason to help Penn State finish its regular season 12-0 in the EIVA. That clinched his fourth EIVA player of the week award of the season on April 20.
Harvey’s older brother, Ryan, was a three-time All-American middle-distance runner at Loras College. Their father, Rob, is Wheaton Warrenville South’s boys and girls track and field coach, and a former All-American runner at North Central College.
Needing to beat Princeton on Saturday for an automatic bid into the 12-team NCAA tournament, Sean Harvey was motivated to get it done for Penn State coach Mark Pavlik, retiring after 32 years, 26 NCAA tournament appearances and the 2008 championship.
“As a team we collectively came together for him,” Harvey said. “We try to attribute the success that we have to everything he’s done for the program.”
The big man
Another sophomore outside/opposite hitter, 6-11 Cole Hartke (Barrington) of No. 4 Pepperdine earned his second straight first-team all-conference spot in Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men’s volleyball.
Coming off his 2025 freshman of the year honor, on average through 89 sets Hartke led all NCAA players in kills and points, ranked ninth in attacks and 12th in aces, and also was 17th in hitting percentage.
A first-team American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-American at Barrington and a member of the 2024 and 2025 Under-21 U.S. National Team, in a five-set win on Jan. 24 at Lewis University Hartke scored 35 points with 29 kills, 11 digs and 7 blocks.
Hartke was included among eight semifinalists on the inaugural watch list for AVCA men’s collegiate player of the year.
Nice job, coach
Around this time last year we noted that University of Illinois-Chicago women’s tennis coach Elizabeth Lumpkin Robinson (Naperville Central) led the Flames to their first Missouri Valley Conference title.
Last Thursday, Lumpkin Robinson earned her first honor as MVC coach of the year. UIC ended its regular season 7-0 in conference, 14-6 overall. It was UIC’s first regular-season conference title since 2021 when it was in the Horizon League. The Flames also recorded their first win over a Big Ten Conference opponent since 2010, 4-3 over Indiana.
Lumpkin Robinson remains the only player to win four Illinois High School Association girls state singles titles, from 2000-03. She’ll vie for a second straight UIC coach of the year award.
Congrats
Sophomore Emma Thompson (Downers Grove North) was named Illinois State’s most valuable female diver at the program’s April 20 awards banquet.
A pair of Jacks
It should be mentioned that three weeks after Wisconsin’s women’s hockey team won its NCAA championship, the Badgers men placed second in theirs, losing 2-1 to Denver on April 11. It should be mentioned because both senior forward Jack Horbach (Naperville Central) and sophomore defender Jack Phelan (Hinsdale Central) skated regular shifts for Wisconsin.
In 37 games Phelan contributed 9 assists and was third on the team with 46 blocked shots. In 39 games, Horbach scored 3 goals with 5 assists, a scrapper fourth on Wisconsin with 36 penalty minutes. Horbach, who on April 16 signed a professional contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins organization, is a three-time Academic All-Big Ten pick who has won Wisconsin awards for most competitive player and “seventh man.”