After sputtering against Rutgers-Newark on Friday, the men's volleyball team completely stalled on Saturday and coasted yesterday.

The Lions (9-3) went 2-1 over the weekend with wins over Rutgers-Newark and Navy, and a loss to George Mason. Rutgers-Newark provided more of a test than was anticipated as the Lions took five games to down the pesky visitors.

Game one of the match typified the whole evening, a nip and tuck battle with the Lions' largest lead being three points. The Lions jumped out to a 4-1 lead, but the Knights came back and tied it at 4-4. The home team pulled out to an 8-5 lead and again the Knights came back and tied it at 8-8.

The visitors scrambled back again to tie it at 13-13, but the Lions scored two more points, the last one on a Robert Pierce kill.

Five ties highlighted the second game. With the score tied at 5-5, a Chris Chase kill put the Lions in front. After the Knights scored to break up a 7-7 tie, they went on to win, 15-12.

The teams exchanged drubbings, 5-15 and 15-4, in the third and fourth games, games in which both teams said they were tired.

"It looked like we were really tired from this week's practice," Jorge Perez said. "I think we adjusted well, though. They played a real tough match too."

"I thought we were playing really well in the second and third game," Knights Coach Bob Bertucci said. "We kind of had Penn State back to the wall, but that just shows Penn State's a seasoned team."

In the finale, a Perez serving ace and a Knights point set the score at 5-2. The Lions scored 10 straight points to lead 10-2. But the Lions relinquished the lead and the Knights scraped their way back to 12-9. With Perez serving, the Lions extended the lead to 14-9.

The Knights, however, were not about to give up as they came back to within 14-12. But Guillo Silva decided enough was enough and scored the last point on a serving ace.

"We just didn't play as in sync as we should have," co-captain Pierce said. "Early on it seemed like no one on the team wanted to take charge."

On Saturday the Lions and the Patriots of George Mason went their usual battle-to-the-death five game match. The Patriots beat the Lions 16-14, 12-15, 15-10,5-15,15-10.

"We haven't been playing well in the last two games," Coach Tom Peterson said. "We made lots and lots of errors (against GMU). Generally there's no excitement, and right now we're not a real good team."

Peterson said George Mason played out of their heads" against the Lions, while his team was "pretty lethargic,"

The Lions rebounded from the loss to the Patriots with a 15-11, 6-15, 15-4, 15-10 win over the Midshipmen yesterday. Peterson said the young Midshipmen put up a good fight.

"Navy's a scrappy team," Peterson said. "They're not the greatest team in the world, but they're getting better."