Traveling to the Midwest to face two quality teams in Ball State and Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne, the No. 9 Penn State Nittany Lions men's volleyball team (3-3) was trying to find its identity as a team but what they found were two physical team that were ready to play.

"These matches were typical Penn State-Ball State, IPFW matches," Penn State men's volleyball coach Mark Pavlik said. "This weekend we found out we are still on the same level with them."

On Friday the Lions were thoroughly out-classed in their match against No. 13 Ball State (4-0). The Cardinals defeated the Lions 3-0 (26-30, 19-30, 26-30). Ball State came out ready to defend. Even though the Lions out-hit and out-killed the Cardinals, they hung on to take game one. The Ball State duo of senior Jary Delgado and freshman Nick Meyer led the Cardinal offense. Meyer had five service aces and Delgado had 11 kills. Ball State also out-blocked Penn State 14-to-5 in the three games. Delgado's two solo blocks in game two were the catalyst that helped Ball State hold Penn State to a .097 hitting percentage. The only bright spot for the Lions was the play of junior Keith Kowal. He led the offense with 17 kill while hitting at a .609 clip.

"We didn't have a lot of energy during the Ball State match," Pavlik said. "Playing in front of their large home crowd you have to make your own energy and we didn't. The next match [against IPFW] was the complete opposite."

On Saturday, the Lions regrouped and handed IPFW (2-1) its first loss of the season in four games (30-20, 24-30, 31-29, 30-27). In a match that didn't have a lot of quality hitting, Kowal was star of the offense again, but this time he showed he could play defense, too. He recorded 15 kills for a .429 hitting percentage and added 10 blocks in the four-game match.

"[Kowal] has had a great first three weeks," Pavlik said. "He's been doing what he has to do in matches to help us. I hope he continues this level of play and I hope he's keeps getting better and better."

After splitting the first two games it looked as if the Lions would take game three easily.

But the Mastodons saved five match points before finally falling. After that Penn State won an anticlimactic fourth game.

Sophomore Kevin Wentzel added 17 kills to led the offense and senior libero Ricky Mattei had 15 digs to lead the defense. Penn State's held IPFW super-hitter Matt Zybszewski to only 23 kills and a .083 hitting percentage.