The men's volleyball team traveled north to participate in its second consecutive tournament weekend, and it captured yet another first-place finish.

In the seventh annual Hall of Fame Classic in Springfield, Mass., the No. 4 Lions (7-1) ran past Big Ten-rival Ohio State (6-5) and host Springfield (4-1) on Saturday to capture their second tournament championship in as many weeks. The team won the Mizuno Nittany Lion Invitational Jan. 28-29.

"We are a very good team," Coach Tom Peterson said. "It is hard for a team to beat us even if one or two of our players are not on, because we are a very even team."

In yesterday's championship match, the Lions jumped out strong early on, behind their strong offense and passing. The Buckeyes were not expecting all the Lions threw at them, and Penn State took game one, 15-4.

In game two, the teams traded sideouts back and forth, before the Buckeyes finally broke open the scoring. The Lions failed to recapture the momentum they had acquired in the first game, and Ohio State won game two, 15-13.

"We got out of our rythym," Peterson said. "There were a lot of odd plays in game two --unexpected blocks, ricochets, lots of normally unseen plays."

Luckily, the Lions rebounded in games three and four, behind the stellar play of tournament Most Valuable Player, senior Ramon Hernandez. Hernandez had 12 kills, eight digs, three blocks and three aces to pace the Lions past Ohio State.

Senior Byron Schneider and junior Ed Josefoski had 19 and 16 kills against the Buckeyes respectively, to place them on the All-Tournament team. The two combined for 10 digs and seven blocks against Ohio State, pacing the Lions to win the final two games 15-7 and 15-10.

On Saturday, the Lions took onSpringfield in front of 1,200 screaming hometown fans. But the large attendance did not faze the team, as it rolled to an easy win.

"It was nice to play in front of such a lively crowd," Peterson said.

After starting slow in game one, the Lions second team came in to power the squad to an effortless win. Penn State won the match, 15-10, 15-8, 15-2.

Despite the fact that Springfield held the Lions to a season-low 22 kills and a .293 hitting efficiency, they committed 58 total errors. Springfield had 26 attacking errors, 18 service errors and seven blocking errors.

The Lions were led by an ensemble cast, as almost every Lion saw action. Freshman Adam Fernsler led the team with seven kills in two games.