The defending men's volleyball national champions finally discovered one of the missing links responsible for the success of last season's team.

The enthusiasm, team effort and utter domination that Penn State displayed during the final match of the Mizuno Nittany Lion Invitational this weekend was an element that had been missing so far this season and was clearly appreciated by the pumped-up Rec Hall crowd.

After exhibition and early-season games, many questions lingered as to the ability of the Lions to finish matches as strong as they started. But this weekend encapsuled an early maturing process for a team trying to replace huge holes left by the graduation of Ramon Hernandez and Byron Schneider.

"We started out very slowly and sloppy and wound up playing a little less sloppy," Penn State Coach Mark Pavlik said of the Lions' three-win weekend. "But we did improve in some areas. We pulled together as a team."

While Pavlik will have the team working hard this week to cut down on the many net violations and other mechanical errors that were committed over the weekend, he can only be happy to have witnessed the energy the Lions displayed on Saturday.

"It's been building up since January," senior outside hitter Ed Josefoski said. "We haven't been finishing teams, so this was really important for us."

On Friday, the team had more trouble than it should have had in finishing off Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne. Saturday's three-game sweep of a weak Wisconsin-Milwaulkee team could not offer a fair assesment of the team's progress.

But the finish came in the final match Saturday night against the Lions' toughest competition of the weekend, No. 14 Ohio State. After Ohio State held an early 8-3 lead in Game 1, it appeared Penn State was being rattled by the power and heart of the Buckeyes.

But that changed quickly as the Lions stormed back to take the lead and never slowed down in their sweep.

Behind Josefoski's showboating and sophomore middle blocker Ivan Contreras' high-stepping, the crowd and the team were getting the most out of the match.

"We just wanted to have fun out there," junior outside hitter Jason Kepner said. "We made our own momentum and it made us feel that we were working as hard at the end of the match as we were at the beginning."

The weekend began on Friday with the traditional arsenal of congo drums and chants by fans to aid the Lions in their rivalry against IPFW.

"That's wonderful stuff," IPFW Coach Arnie Ball said. "This is what college sports is all about. Both our schools have large Puerto Rican connections and when they come to our place in March, we're going to have a gym full of screaming fans waiting for them."