Even though it was plagued by injuries going in to the finals, the men's volleyball team saw a tremendous effort from some of its younger players as it captured first place in the Nittany Lion-Mizuno Invitational.

Penn State's Chris Chase was named the tournament's MVP, and Scott Miller and Robert Pierce earned all-tournament team honors.

Indiana Purdue/Fort Wayne battled to second in the tournament, followed by George Mason, Ohio State, Norre (a Danish club team) and Western Ontario.

The Lions were healthy going into the tournament, but lost Guillo Silva and Charlie Bertran, two key players, during play.

In their opening match against Western Ontario, the Lions dropped the first game, 15-12, but rebounded to win three straight games 15-2, 15-3 and 15-8. Chase led the Lions in kills and blocks, recording 14 and seven, respectively. Co-Captain Pierce topped in digs, recording ten.

The Lions moved on to face the Buckeyes of Ohio State, and ran over them 15-4,16-14 and 15-11. Penn State's wins were helped by Pierce's jump serve and Chases's spiking ability. Chase led again in kills, with 18, followed by Silva, who recorded 17, including 11 in the second game. Bertran and Pierce led in digs, with nine each.

"(Penn State) has a pretty solid team," Buckeye coach Pete Hanson said. "We made too many mental errors and you can't do that with a good team because they'll kill you."

"One thing we wanted to improve on was blocking and serving," Pierce said. "And today we served the daylights out of (Ohio State) and we blocked good too."

"Penn State payed a price for the win, with Silva severely spraining his ankle when he landed wrong after jumping for a block in the third game. Silva will be sidelined for at least two weeks, he said.

The tournament's most exciting match was probably when the Lions faced the George Mason Patriots in the semifinals. The match went to five games, with Penn State getting the upper hand, 15-10, 10-15, 15-17, 15-9 and 15-10. "I think George Mason played really well, I think we played well, too," Chase said. "But we had some inconsistencies that really hurt us."

"I think we let up," Pierce agreed. "In the fact that we were playing GMU, and we really don't like that team. We should have maintained coming at them, we wanted to crush this team. And since they're our rivalries it doesn't matter how good they are. The rivalry is going to be the deciding factor."

The third game of the series was a high-intensity marathon match, with tempers flaring. Against the wall with a score of 9-14, the Lions were temporarily saved when Bertran ran into the stands, dodging fans, to knock the ball back in play. The move was costly, however, since Bertran bruised the quad muscle in his leg against one of the bleachers.

The team was helped by Silva's replacement, Jorge Perez, who had 28 kills and eight digs. Chase led in kills with 46, followed by Pierce with 31.

The win moved the Lions to the finals, to face IPFW, also 3-0 in the tournament with wins over Norre, George Mason and Ohio State. The first game saw the Lions scramble from a 7-1 deficit to temporarily tie at 15-15. Their effort fell short, however, as they dropped the game, 17-15.

They came back in the second game, downing IPFW 15-10. Their effort was helped unintentionally by IPFW's coach, who gave the Lions a penalty point after being overly boisterous about a ref's call.