Taking a break from the regular season, the Penn State men's volleyball team returned to its roots Saturday when former players returned to Happy Valley for Alumni Day.

"The one thing that I want any current team to see is that when they're (the alumni) here it's a celebration of the program," Lions coach Mark Pavlik said.

The day started with scrimmages among the alumni that ran form 10 a.m. to about 12 p.m. The alumni returned at 3 p.m. to take on the varsity program's current players. In the past 25 years, the alumni have fallen victim to the youth, vigor and swagger of the varsity players. This year's alumni game was much of the same as the varsity players won all four matches (30-20, 30-22, 30-14, 30-19) despite the alumni's strong effort. After the game, the alumni and current players exchanged and rehashed stories over a banquet.

"Of course every year the stories from the old days get exaggerated," 1976 All-American Tom Hahn said.

"We jumped a little higher. We hit the ball a little harder. Everything gets embellished year by year, so over the course of time it's unbelievable."

Since it started 26 years ago, Alumni Day has given the alumni to meet the current players.

"We like to get to know the new guys," alumnus Kevin Munger (class of 1999) said. "We want to see the great Penn State men's volleyball tradition continue. Every year we come back and we see that they're doing that. They're always a solid team."

It also gives the players a chance to learn how the men's volleyball program became what it is today.

"It's very sentimental," sophomore Rhonee Rojas said.

"I think they put a lot into the program and it's our job to continue that." The Penn State volleyball program was a club team until 1977, when after a successful season in 1976, Penn State won the national tournament but wasn't allowed to go to the NCAA Championships because it wasn't a varsity team.

"We almost embarrassed the administration to making a varsity team out of us," All-American Dave Dicker (class of 1975) said.

Prior to gaining varsity status, players got very few things from the university, driving in their own cars and staying at their friends' houses for tournaments.

When the players finally gained varsity status, the difference in accommodations and how the team was treated was like "night and day," alumnus Frank Guadagnino (class of 1978) said. Many of the alumni take pride in having built the foundation for what the men's volleyball program is today. The club team put together the groundwork for a varsity type program, alumnus Jim "Yak" Wittler said.

"Our goal was to play, to have a good time, and to build a team that could go forward and gain varsity status," Wittler said. Since many of the alumni rarely get a chance to play during the year, they like to take advantage of their chance to play against the current Penn State team.

"We just like to come back and motivate them and give them a little sense of history," alumnus Stu Cohen (class of 1975) said.

"When I tell my friends that I'm going to Penn State to let some 19-year-old stud hit a volleyball into my face at 100 mph, they tell me that I'm out of my mind and I tell them that I wouldn't spend my weekend doing anything else."