The No. 12 men's volleyball team will seek redemption tomorrow when it faces No. 11 Ball State in the Asics Volleyfest at Elizabethtown College.

It was the Cardinals who spoiled the Lions' Mizuno/Nittany Lion Invitational Jan. 20 with a 13-15, 15-6, 11-15, 10-15 win in the championship game.

A win should move the Lions (15-9) ahead of Ball State (17-10) in the AVCA/Tachikara poll, establishing them as the No. 1 team in the East.

With just over a month left until the Final Four meets at George Mason, rankings are very important.

Both teams could make the Final Four, as they did last year, because they play in different regions. If it happens again, neither wants to be ranked below the other.

That would mean a No. 4 seed in the NCAA championships and a matchup against the powerful Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Champion, which will be seeded No. 1.

Right now UCLA (12-1), USC (8-1) and Stanford (6-1) have the best records out West.

Coach Tom Peterson knows a win against Ball State will be difficult. Ball State has two returning All-Americans, 6'1" setter Chris Cooper and 6'4" outside hitter Chris Beerman.

"They are going to be real tough, just like they were before," Peterson said. "They are very experienced."

"They are a little bigger team than we are," co-captain Todd Shirley said. "We've got to run a successful offense against them. We've got to be able to move their blockers around. If we run the type of offense we normally run, then we should be able to beat them at this point."

After last weekend's sweep of Navy and George Mason, Penn State finds itself with a four-match winning streak. The Lions may very well be coming around after a roller-coaster beginning to their season.

"I think that we really blocked well last weekend after a couple weeks off," Shirley said. "Conditioning has really paid off for us -- I know that we're in shape at this point. We've got 12 guys who are playing some really good ball right now."

Penn State will also meet Brigham Young and Ohio State in the four-team, three-site round-robin tournament.

The Lions will take on the No. 16 Cougars (5-12) tonight at the University of Scranton. Penn State faced BYU on its West Coast trip Feb. 23-24 and escaped Provo, Utah, with two hard fought victories.

But the Cougars are much improved since then and recently defeated No. 5 Hawaii.

"We have to block well against them," setter Scott Miller said. "They have a really good outside hitter that we've got to key on. We have to key on a couple of players and try to stop them and hopefully our offense will be there."

"We will have to play good defense," assistant coach Mark Pavlik agreed. "I think we'll have to take a look at our match-ups. That gave us a little bit of an edge last time we played them.

"I think they're going to be ready for us. We went into Utah and beat them (and) I think they'll be coming to Pennsylvania to beat us."

Sunday afternoon the Lions will face the No. 19 Buckeyes (6-19) at Conestoga Valley High School. Penn State had an easy time with Ohio State, winning in straight games, when the two teams met Feb. 10 at Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne Invitational.

"We are a little bit better skilled than them," Miller said. "This year is their weakest team in a few years. They're really young and rebuilding at this time."

Penn State will not have time to rest following its grueling three-match weekend. The Lions will continue their EIVA schedule Tuesday night at East Stroudsburg.