Penn State and George Mason will meet during the final weekend of the EIVA regular season with the conference's top spot on the line, and each will bring in an EIVA Player of the Week award winner onto the court. The Patriots' Georgi Zahariev is the Offensive Player of the Week and the Nittany Lions' Owen Rose is the Defensive Player of the Week for April 13, 2026. Their teams meet April 17 and 18 at Penn State's Rec Hall. The Nittany Lions (18-7, 10-0 EIVA) can clinch the regular-season title outright and the No. 1 seed for the EIVA Championship Tournament by winning at least one of the two matches. The Patriots (20-7, 8-2) must take both contests to capture the crown and hosting duties for the tournament, which will be played April 22-25.
OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Georgi Zahariev, Sr., S, George Mason
Georgi guided the Patriot offense to a pair of wins over Princeton, improving their win streak to 10 straight, and kept them in the hunt for the EIVA regular-season title. The senior setter gave out 37 assists as George Mason hit .352 with only 12 errors in a 3-1 win April 10. He also had six kills on an error-free eight swings to hit .750, two aces, seven digs and one block. The following day he posted a career-high 59 assists while GMU hit .244 in a 3-2 victory, adding three kills, two aces, four digs and two blocks. Over nine sets he totaled 96 assists, nine kills on .467 hitting, four aces, 11 digs and three blocks as the Patriots hit .289. The 59 assists in the second outing are an EIVA single-match best in 2026, marking the third time he has topped 50 this season, and he surpassed 2,000 career assists during Match 1. Zahariev leads the EIVA with 10.03 assists per set, ranking 11th nationally entering the weekend, and the Patriots lead the EIVA hitting .279. This is Zahariev’s third career EIVA weekly honor and second of the season.
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Owen Rose, R-Sr., MB, Penn State
Owen put up another defensive wall for the Nittany Lions in a pair of five-set comeback wins at Sacred Heart. In both matches, April 10 and 11, Penn State trailed 2-1 entering the fourth set before rallying to victory. The redshirt senior middle blocker began his weekend with eight kills on .412 hitting, two aces, one assist, three digs and 11 blocks, one solo. It was the third match this season Rose has posted double digits in blocks. In the second contest Rose delivered five kills on .300 hitting, three digs and seven blocks, two solo. His weekend total saw 13 kills on .370 hitting, two aces, one assist, six digs and 18 blocks, three solo. Rose has had at least five blocks in 10 matches this season, including four of the last five with 34 total over that stretch. Both Penn State and Rose led the nation in blocking entering the weekend. The Nittany Lions now average 2.86 blocks per set and Rose averages 1.48 blocks per set. He also reached 460 career blocks, No. 5 on the Nittany Lions’ list. This is the third EIVA weekly honor of Rose’s season and seventh for his career.