Penn State Player of the Week: Max Lipsitz, Volleyball

A steep learning curve is all part of volleyball for Max Lipsitz.

The now senior Penn State middle hitter started the sport his freshman year of high school with little knowledge about the rules. From this point on, his career played out in high speed.

“I did not know anything about (volleyball),” he said. “Our high school basketball coach called us and said ‘You know, I am the volleyball coach. We have no volleyball players here, so why not come out and try it?’

“After we tried it, (we) all fell in love with it.”

Eight years later, Lipsitz is an All-American who is top three in kills for No. 9 Penn State (15-3).

“Max is an intelligent guy,” said Penn State head coach Mark Pavlik. “I have always found that intelligent guys pick things up much quicker and he picked things up pretty well.”

While Lipsitz has been successful over the past eight years, he has faced his share of learning challenges. The 5′-7′ senior has always been aware of his innate athletic ability, but over the years has had inner uncertainty over his ability to adjust to rapidly changing difficulty levels.

This uncertainty began in high school.

“I could jump pretty high and move decently well,” he said. “I was invited to USA volleyball tryouts, but I had no idea what I was doing out there.”

“When I was there they said, ‘If you work hard you can play at the top level.’”

Lipsitz was hesitant to believe what he heard and was surprised when he began receiving calls from Division I programs.

“We kept an eye on him through junior year,” said Pavlik. “He was a kid with a big jump who was pretty physical but needed to develop his arm swing.”

Him arm swing developed enough to get him an offer to Penn State, but when he came to Happy Valley coaches were unsure of his ability to assimilate into the program. A combination of player transfers and injuries forced Lipsitz to test this question immediately.

“I was thrown into a starting position in a top five program my freshman year,” he said. “I came in the fall and was getting butt kicked.”

“It was pretty scary the first couple months, but I started to figure it out.”

By his sophomore year Lipsitz definitely started to ‘figure it out.’ Along with fellow middle hitter and 2009 graduate Max Holt, Lipsitz would play a major role in helping the Nittany Lions win the 2008 NCAA Men’s Volleyball Championship.

The sophomore would record a career-high 17 kills and hit .500 against No. 2 Pepperdine in the championship.

“He was huge in that championship run,” said junior Jesse Wagner. “Him and Holt dominated the middle hitter position.”

Going into his senior year Lipsitz is hoping to win another national championship. Last week he helped his team move closer to that goal with 15 kills and a match-high .650 hitting in a 3-0 victory against No. 6 Long Beach (11-8).

“It is very rare that we get to play matches as the underdog, especially against a home crowd,” said Lipsitz. “We came out fired up and just played clean.”

The senior middle hitter is still meeting his coaches expectation as student and athlete, but when he graduates his learning curve will become even steeper.

“He is the type of guy we want in a Nittany Lion uniform,” said Pavlik. “What is going to control how well he does (after graduate) is how quickly he picks up the experiences.

“Where he falls is up to how quickly he develops his skill sets.”