The men's volleyball team's 33-game home winning streak was snapped by Ball State in the finals of the Mizuno/Nittany Lion Invitational Saturday, 15-13, 6-15, 15-11, 15-10.

The Lions (5-1) had not lost at home since a match against Southern Cal on Feb. 4, 1986.

Ball State (7-0) was led by senior setter Chris Cooper, the tournament's MVP, and all-tournament selections Chris Beerman and Kevin Furnish.

"(Ball State) is No. 5 and I would give them for sure that ranking," Penn State coach Tom Peterson said. "They're a very, very nice team and tonight they outplayed us. (But) sometimes a loss -- a quality loss -- is a good thing. That's how we have to take it.

"We played really hard, but they came out and beat us," middle blocker Todd Shirley said. "They had a really tough middle attack . . . and they had a good blocking (unit) and they were able to take our offense out of it."

Charlie Bertran and Guillo Silva -- both named to the all-tournament team -- led the Lions with 31 and 30 kills, respectively, against Ball State. Jorge Perez added 23 kills and setter Jim Schall finished with 88 assists and a team-high 14 digs.

In the first game of the championship match, Penn State burst out to an 8-3 lead, but the Cardinals, led by Beerman and Bob Penzes, fought back to take a 10-9 lead.

Ball State then established a 14-11 advantage, but the Lions did not give up. They pulled to within 14-13 on Jim Schall's service ace before the Cardinals finally won on their seventh try at game point.

"We played a very good team, and when you play a good team you can't peak and valley," assistant coach Mark Pavlik said. "They remain pretty stable throughout the entire match and a lot of that I attribute to Chris Cooper. He's a great setter."

Penn State got out to a big lead again in game two, 10-4. And this time the Lions didn't look back, going on to win 15-6 as defensive specialist Mike Schall served out the final five points.

"In the second game they were just blasting the ball in on us," Cooper said. "We couldn't do anything."

The Lions jumped out to a 6-3 lead in game three, but the Cardinals scored seven points in a row to take a commanding 10-6 lead. Penn State got as close as 11-9, but Ball State then pulled away to win, 15-11, and take a 2-1 lead.

"After the second game when we lost badly, we started to pick on their offense," Cooper said. "We started keying on some of their big hitters . . . we tried to get on (Silva) more, make him work a little bit harder. We did a good job the third game keeping them within themselves."

Ball State remained on a roll at the start of game four, taking an 8-1 lead behind the play of Furnish and Rodney Morgan. The Cardinals were within reach of the championship, 13-5, when Penn State began to fight back.

Led by Silva, the Lions got to within 13-10, forcing a Ball State timeout which in turn led to a standing ovation from the crowd of fans packed into the South Gym.

"The good thing about the last game is that we came back," Peterson said. "After getting down we could have just folded up completely, (but) we didn't. We came back.

"(Penn State) just wouldn't give up," Ball State coach Don Shondell said. "(In the) last game we kind of took control of it, but they kept fighting back (and) made their run, and I was hoping we'd hold on."

After the timeout Ball State forced a sideout and promptly made the score 14-10. Penn State still didn't give up, though, and staved off three potential championship points before losing.

In the semifinals, held earlier Saturday, Penn State defeated No. 10 George Mason and Ball State beat Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne. The Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne Volleydons then upset George Mason to take third place at the tournament.

Penn State's match against George Mason perhaps best illustrated the Lions' inconsistent play throughout the tournament.

Penn State was blown off the court in the first game, 15-6, as a number of players, including Jim Schall and Bertran, struggled. The Lions, however, won the next two games handily, 15-3 and 15-9.

George Mason crushed Penn State, 15-2, in game four, but the Lions came back from that loss and won game five, played using fastscore rules, 15-10.

The Lions won all three of their matches during Friday's pool play. Perez finished with 21 kills and nine digs as Penn State beat Navy, 15-9, 11-15, 15-13, 15-8.

The match featured the return of Silva, who wore a cast to protect the healing broken finger on his right hand. Playing in only the final two games, Silva compiled 18 kills.

"Guillo is Guillo," Peterson said. "We expect that out of him. Maybe that's not too fair, but he's a great player and we expect him to do just what he did."

Silva led the way with 25 kills, seven digs and one service ace in the victory over Rutgers-Newark, 17-15, 15-10, 15-9. And Silva and Bertran combined for 52 kills in the Lions' win over Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne, 17-16, 12-15, 15-13, 15-13.