The Penn State men's volleyball team must look forward to playing St. Francis.

With a three game sweep (30-23, 30-22, 30-26) of the Red Flash last night at Rec Hall, the Nittany Lions (3-2) improved their all-time record against St. Francis (4-3) to a perfect 9-0. Under head coach Mark Pavlik, Penn State has upended St. Francis in three games all but once, when in 1998, the Red Flash pushed the decision to four games.

The Lions seem to have turned their season around after a disappointing trip to Hawaii.

"What's in the past is in the past," Pavlik said.

"I don't think we dredge anything out."

With the win the Lions have won two consecutive games, the first time they've done that this year.

"We were fired up to win," junior middle hitter Zach Slenker said. "We just wanted to show everybody that we didn't play our best volleyball in Hawaii and that we're going to keep getting better, and hopefully by the Final Four we'll be playing our best ball of the year."

Pavlik wanted his team to come out and assert their physical dominance - and they did.

"In all my years in this gym, I've never seen so many balls bounce off of so many body parts from our guys taking good swings," Pavlik said.

The Lions expected their size to be an advantage heading into the matchup. And with 15 players at least 6-foot-4, the Lions physical presence proved to be too much for the Red Flash.

Penn State seemed to touch every ball hit at them and out-blocked St. Francis 9.5-2. Slenker led the Lions with six block assists.

"I think St. Francis was overmatched by experience and size," Slenker said. "No matter who we had out on the court, we were almost always taller than they were. I think we were just more overwhelming and physical players than they were."

Heading into the game, junior outside hitter Kevin Hodge had recorded four kills against Ohio State and only one kill against Hawaii.

Last night, Hodge's game opened up as he led all players with 13 kills. Not only did he lead all players in kills but he also was the only player to reach double-digits.

"Kevin's strength is how physical he's been able to become," Pavlik said.

Hodge couldn't have done it without his teammates.

"All the credit goes to Nate (Matthews) and Rhonee (Rojas) passing the ball. Nick was just putting the ball there so I take my hat off to him."

Matthews, coming in after an early departure from starting setter Jose Quinones, led all players with 35 assists.

Junior outside hitter Carlos Guerra, Slenker, and sophomore Alex Weaver all came close to double-digit kills with nine, eight, and eight, respectively. Penn State had a total of 59 kills to St. Francis' 37. The Lions' hit well as they more than doubled St. Francis's hitting percentage (.226) with a .551 hitting percentage.

Penn State also dominated the digging game, 25-15.

Senior outside hitter Chris Telesco led the Red Flash with nine kills. Junior outside hitter Matt Farabaugh added eight kills, while teammates Chris Scrabis and Taylor Whitehurst each chipped in seven.

"Penn State definitely sets the bar on the East Coast right now, and have for the last ten or twelve years," Farabaugh said. "Our big challenge right now is to compete with these guys, and that's what our program is working forward to doing."

The Lions will look to extend their success to this weekend when they take on George Mason and Stanford in the NCAA Preview Tournament. They will play host to George Mason on Friday and Stanford on Saturday. Both games are slated for an 8:30 p.m. start.