Prior to its March 3 match against No. 7 Pepperdine, the men's volleyball team's annual West Coast trip was anything but sunny.

But the No. 11 Lions stunned the Waves in straight games, 15-7, 15-13, 15-13, avenging two early season losses to the Malibu, Calif. team.

With the win the Lions moved their record to 12-9 and dropped the Waves to 6-5.

The win was Penn State's first in seven matches against teams ranked higher than it in the AVCA/Tachikara poll.

The Lions had to come back from deficits of 8-0 in the second game and 13-4 in the third to defeat the waves.

"It all really came together at Pepperdine," assistant coach Mark Pavlik said. "The guys really pulled together. We began to eliminate the errors that got us down in the third and fourth games . . . we played real well.

Outside hitter Guillo Silva led the Lions with 27 kills, six blocks, and seven digs. Jorge Perez chipped in with 15 kills and seven digs, while Winfield Evens had eight blocks and six digs.

"We played tough and consistent," Perez said. "We really showed a lot of guts in coming back from being down . . . We showed how we can play against top teams."

Before the win against Pepperdine, Penn State may have wished it had stayed in Utah. It was in Provo, Utah were the Lions got their two other wins against Brigham Young.

The Lions fell behind early in their Feb. 23 match, but came back to defeat the No. 13 Cougars, 13-15, 15-6, 15-12, 15-12.

Before the match the 1,268 fans in attendance paid tribute to Coach Tom Peterson. Peterson, a 1978 Brigham Young graduate, coached the Cougars to three club championships before becoming Penn State's coach last season. BYU became a varsity program this season.

The next night the Lions were taken to the wire by the Cougars. Penn State came back from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits to win, 16-17, 15-7, 11-15, 15-9, 15-13.

Outside hitter Charlie Bertran was a big reason for the Lions success against BYU. In the two matches Bertran had 52 kills. Silva and Perez had 36 and 32 kills, respectively, in the two matches.

Following the 2-0 start the Lions headed for California and their Feb. 26 matchup with No. 18 California-Irvine.

Cal-Irvine, entering the match 1-7, looked to be the easiest test for the Lions. Of the four California teams, the Anteaters were the only team ranked outside the Top 8.

But Penn State fell behind early and was unable to make up the deficit, losing 6-15, 10-15, 15-12, 10-15.

Silva (27 kills) and Perez (18 kills) were top performers in the losing effort.

On Feb. 28, Penn State faced No. 8 San Diego State. Despite jumping to an early lead the Lions could not hold off the Aztecs who won, 11-15, 15-11, 17-15, 16-14.

It was Silva who led the Lions again with 35 kills and 11 digs.

Next up for the Lions was the March 1 match with Long Beach State. The Miners entered the match 13-2 and ranked No. 3 in the nation.

Penn State fell behind 2-0 before coming alive in the third game. The Lions came back to even the match 2-2 but lost the fifth game and the match, 5-15, 5-15, 15-11, 15-11, 15-10.

Silva had 31 kills and Perez added 12 kills and eight digs. Co-Captain John Wasielewski also contributed 10 kills and two blocks.

Penn State ended its trip 3-3.

"We put ourself in a real nice position," Pavlik said. "I think this trip gave some people some confidence. We played some pretty good teams and we could have easily come back from this trip 5-1 . . . We know what it takes to beat these teams and that's what it is going to take to win the Eastern (Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) championship and that's what it's going to take to get into the Final four."

"We played some of our best volleyball of the year towards the end of the trip," setter Jim Schall said. "Hopefully we can use the Pepperdine win to get on a roll."

The Lions face EIVA opponent East Stroudsburg Friday night at 7:30 in Rec Hall.