Spikers head west for tourney

By SCOTT GLASSMAN
Collegian Sports Writer

It has been a long time since the men's volleyball players packed their bags and headed west to meet the hungry teams of the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association. But it's road-trip time for the Lions as they head for three crucial matches in the second half of the season.

First on the schedule is the Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne Invitational. The No. 7 Lions (11-3) will see a pair of familiar mascots in host IPFW (9-12) and No. 8 Ball State (13-7). This will be the third time this season Penn State has met these teams. The Lions battle IPFW at 8:15 p.m. today and rap up their tournament play with Ball State at 6 p.m. tomorrow.

Before heading home, the Lions will stop at Ohio State to tango with the Buckeyes (13-6) at 3 p.m. on Sunday in their second of three meetings.

The Buckeyes, currently unranked, just completed a successful West Coast tour, including an upset of No. 5 Cal State Northridge. The Lions and Buckeyes last met on Feb. 4 with Penn State sweeping the match.

But Ohio State was without the services of Jose Bengoa and Matt Wilson, arguably two of the top players on the team.

"Both are completely healthy and are playing well for us," Ohio State Coach Pete Hanson said. "We will have a much deeper team this time around."

While Ohio State will be a stiff challenge, the most important match of the weekend lies with Ball State. The Lions are thirsty to avenge their recent upset to the Cardinals, who are ready to prove their victories over Penn State and UCLA three weeks ago were not flukes.

"The Ball State match is really important for us," Lion outside hitter Fred Matheis said. "If it comes down to the end of the season and they win the MIVA and we win the EIVA, then because we have already split, the winner of this match will be very important for the NCAA seedings."

Behind the skill of Todd Reimer -- a 1994 American Volleyball Coaches Association All-American -- and the strength of outside attacker Greg Romano, the Lions will have a tough time trying to contain Ball State's powerful one-two punch.

"They're going to get their kills," Lion Coach Mark Pavlik said. "But we've got to limit them to side outs. If they are serving, the team has to know where they are because, more than likely, they're going to be hitting the ball."

But before Penn State can look ahead to the Ball State match, they will have to get by an unranked, but talented, IPFW team.

"They will have a great crowd there," Pavlik said. "They get behind their team just like us. We've played in front of a hostile crowd in Rutgers, but it was not nearly as big as this one will be. But it's good for us to do this and work through it."