LORETTO -- The men's volleyball team proved that no matter how poorly it plays, it is still the best team in the east.

The No. 2 Lions (13-1) improved to 5-0 in the Tait Division of the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association with two sweeps during the weekend. After dominating Eastern Mennonite (0-9, 0-3) in record-time on Friday, the Lions struggled at St. Francis on Saturday before coming away with the win.

"We cannot lose any matches against any eastern teams, so all of these wins are very important," Coach Tom Peterson said. "We want to win our division, we want to win the east, we can't lose for the polls. There's a lot of reasons why this is important."

Despite the 44 errors that the team committed against the Red Flash (9-8, 1-1), including 16 service errors, the Lions rallied when it counted and swept St. Francis, 15-8, 15-10, 15-11.

"We didn't play very well against St. Francis," senior Ed Josefoski said. "When we play the tougher teams, we play up to them. It's kind of hard to keep the emotion up and whatnot."

After falling behind 11-5 in game three, the coaches called timeout in an effort to provide a wake-up call to the team. Whatever was said must have hit home because the Lions picked up the next 10 points, ending the match.

"We weren't ready to play," Assistant Coach Mark Pavlik said. "Luckily, we pulled it out, but I was not pleased at all with the way we played tonight."

One facet in which the Lions performed uncharacteristically poor was behind the serving stripe. The Lions usually count on their serving to force their opponents into running unwanted offenses. But against St. Francis, the team's serving was very light and casual.

"I don't know if it was the layoff, I don't know what the guys are feeling in the gym," Peterson said. "I don't know what it was, but for sure, that was a kind of a lackluster serving performance."

Once the team returned to State College at 10:30 p.m. on Saturday night, Peterson did not send the players home. Rather, he called a practice for the team to work on blocking, passing and the overall mental state of the players.

On Friday night, before 350 in attendance at Rec Hall, the Lions steamrolled over Eastern Mennonite, taking only 39 minutes to sweep the Royals (15-0, 15-3, 15-2).

One member of the Lions who especially looked forward to these matches was defensive specialist Jake Yanchar. Yanchar has not seen much action this season, but against the Royals, he was the only Lion to see action in all three games.

"This is a good opportunity for me, mostly because of my height," the 5-foot-10 freshman said. "I love these matches. These are fun and I get to play a lot -- front row especially."