Men's volleyball coach Mark Pavlik was counting on the defending Canadian national champions to provide two final tests for his young team before closing out the preseason.

He anxiously desired the kind of scrappy, five-game marathon matches his team expects to face in less than two weeks when it opens the season against UCLA.

He never got one last night.

The Nittany Lions topped Laval for the second time this month, 16-14, 15-13, 15-11, in the first of two exhibition matches. Laval will try to rebound at 7:30 p.m. today in Rec Hall. Although the scores present the appearance of a tightly-contested, down-to-the-wire match, any fan at the three-game match could see that was not the case.

Led by the emotionally-charged play of outside hitter Ed Josefoski, Penn State dominated the start and finish, jumping out to leads of 6-1, 10-4 and 12-2 in the games before succumbing to sloppy play.

Josefoski, who decided to return for his final year of eligibility after much deliberation, finished with a team-high 23 kills while committing only three hitting errors.

The tone of the match was set early in the first game, which featured 63 sideouts and eleven over the final two points. Trailing 10-4, Laval rallied to tie the game 10-10 and later 14-14 before Penn State scored the final two points, the last of which came on a diving dig by Josefoski to set up one of middle blocker Ivan Contreras' 20 kills.

"I think Laval just upped their level of play," Pavlik said of his team's slide in the middle of the three games. "We definitely need to work on our play in the middle. But I was real pleased with the way we opened up the games and the way we closed them."

But are they ready for the season opener against UCLA?

"No," Pavlik responded without hesitation. "We've got a lot more work to do. We're just streaky right now and we have to try to balance that out.

"I will say I'm glad we're where we're at," he added with a smile.

Although Pavlik was bothered by inconsistent play, he took solace in the way the ball bounced for his team last night.

Leading 9-2 in the third game, Contreras' kill attempt off a low set hit the top of the net. The ball rolled the length of the net before landing just inside the Laval's opposite sideline.

Earlier in the match senior captain Brian Miller's serve landed untouched near the sideline. The call could have gone either way. It was ruled good.

Note:

-- Junior setter Carlos Ortiz, suffering from "something similar to the flu" since Christmas, did not start yesterday and played in limited action. Pavlik said he is expected to start today.