The men's volleyball team is finally on a level comparable with the powerhouses on the West Coast.

By sweeping No. 7 Stanford twice and taking them to five games in their only loss, Penn State (2-1) showed the nation that it is more than the best school in the East.

"It proves that we are a better team than they are," sophomore Kevin Hourican said. "We beat them soundly twice and they had to struggle to beat us."

After sweeping the Cardinal (1-3) at Rec Hall on Thursday, the two teams took to the road for two neutral site games in Eastern Pennsylvania. Friday night in Newtown, the No. 6 Lions came out flat and Stanford won the first game, 15-8.

Penn State was facing game point in game two (14-8) before it picked up the pace and stormed back to take games two and three, 18-16 and 15-12.

"We got back into the rhythm we were in on Thursday night," senior co-captain Byron Schneider said. "We were really happy with how we came from behind."

But the Lions could not seal the match, dropping game four, 15-5. In a best-of-five match, game five was played as a rally game, in which there are no sideouts and the teams do not need to be serving to earn a point.

In the rally game, the Lions were down 8-2 before bounding back to match point at 14-12. However, the Lions faltered three times in a row, hitting the ball out and passing up golden opportunities to earn their second win of the season, as they fell 16-14.

"We played very well in all of the matches," Coach Tom Peterson said. "We had great nights from all of our guys. We all hung in there the whole way."

Saturday's match in Elizabethtown had the Lions just as hot as they had been on Thursday. The result was the same, as Penn State swept Stanford again (15-13, 15-9, 18-16).

"We came out strong and won the first two games," Schneider said. "Stanford fought back in game three, but luckily we pulled it out."

Last season, the team had problems putting matches away after jumping out to two-game leads. But against Stanford, the Lions held on and swept the Cardinal for their first two wins of the season.

"We proved that we can fight back from a big deficit and we can also put the teams away when we are up," Hourican said.

After winning two matches from one of the toughest teams in the country, the Lions now have proof that they are as good as everyone has been saying.

"We are not going to settle for anything less than being one of the very top teams in the country," Peterson said. "We have the makings of a really dominant team."