Perhaps the men's volleyball team held a luau before last night's game.

The No. 8 Lions (7-1) established themselves as a strong contender to reach this year's Final Four in Hawaii by defeating No. 3 UCLA (3-2) in Buffalo, N.Y., 15-8, 15-10, 14-16, 15-10. Senior outside hitter Jorge Perez led Penn State with 37 kills and freshman middle blocker Ramon Hernandez added 19. Penn State's other senior outside hitter, Charlie Bertran, led the Lions with 18 digs.

The Lions are now 2-8-1 against the Bruins in the series' history. The Lions defeated UCLA in five games early last season.

"Obviously its a big victory," Coach Tom Peterson said. "Whenever you beat UCLA its going to be a big victory."

"This is one of the biggest wins I've had," said Perez, a co-captain.

Yet Peterson stressed that this match was just the beginning for the Lions.

"We have to make sure that this (match) is not our season, it just starts our season," he said.

"It's a satisfying win," assistant coach Mark Pavlik added, "but its certainly not our season."

"It's win No. 7," Pavlik said, "but you can't get real up over wins when you work hard."

The Lions had to work hard to keep the Bruins strong blocking and massive height under control. Both were evident at times, but the Penn State was able to keep control with pinpoint passing. Junior outside hitter Tom Gingrich had 16 digs, and Pavlik also praised sophomore middle blocker David Muir's passing efforts.

"We touched a lot of balls," Pavlik said. "We let the athletic ability of our backrow people save us at times."

"Our guys came in not letting (their height) bother us," Perez said.

Despite the Lions passing prowess, though, the Bruins were able to come back by taking advantage of their height to win the third set. In the fourth set, Penn State came out strong and took a 10-3 lead before UCLA used numerous blocks to cut the Lions' lead to 11-9.

In the end, however, passing prevailed.

"The only time we got in trouble were our own (passing) errors," Peterson said.

And that accurate passing help to set up Perez and Bertran, two of the nation's best outside hitters.

"Both of them do so much for us because we are setting outside so much of the time," Pavlik said.

Peterson was also extremely pleased with the Lions' team cohesion during last night's match. Team cohesion was the team's No. 1 goal, above both winning the Eastern title and making the Final Four.

"Last year we had a tendency more than this year to kind of (fold)" in tough matches, Peterson said.

"We have the satisfaction of knowing we are on the right track," Pavlik added.

The Lions won't be able to ride their wave of self-confidence for long. They will travel to Elizabethtown College in Lancaster tonight to participate in a tournament with Manitoba, George Mason, and UCLA. The Lions will take on George Mason in the first round, and if they win, could possibly face UCLA again.