Only one word can describe the men's volleyball matches at Rec Hall on Saturday: classic.

After a grueling first match in which defending national champion Lewis (6-5) outlasted Southern California (2-10) 3-2 (26-30, 22-30, 30-28, 30-20, 15-12), Penn State let a win slip away in a memorable second match. They lost a heartbreaker to California-San Diego 3-2 (33-35, 30-26, 30-25, 27-30, 12-15).

Penn State held a two-games-to-one lead but fell apart in the final two games. In game four the Lions gave up an 11-2 run that took the score from 7-7 to 17-9 in favor of the Tritons.

Then, in game five, Penn State gave up another run with the score 7-7. A 6-2 spurt gave San Diego a 13-9 lead.

Game five was lost on a slew of mental mistakes, including two errors and a center line violation by Matt Proper.

"You're at 7-7 in game five, you got to make plays," Penn State men's volleyball coach Mark Pavlik said.

"We have yet to put a weekend of matches together where we played well."

In the match, junior Keith Kowal led all players in kills with 23 and also recorded seven blocks. For San Diego, Adam Toren had 20 kills to go along with his three aces.

The Tritons' serve was a problem for the Lions all night as San Diego racked up nine aces, of which a majority were recorded in the final two games.

"Most of [the aces were] miscommunication," Penn State senior libero Ricky Mattei said. "It was a bunch of high rainbow-like serves and we were creeping up when we should have stayed back."

The Lions also had a match on Friday night against USC.

They won the match in three games (30-18, 30-24, 30-22) after USC had just arrived at Rec Hall two-and-a-half hours before game time.

USC had some travel problems, but still showed up to play, but Penn State took advantage of the jet-lagged Trojans.

Proper had 15 kills, Kevin Wentzel led the way with 17 kills and Kowal recorded 12 kills. All three players recorded double-digit kills in the dominating win.

"We have to look on the positive side," Pavlik said.

"Offensively we have done some things, but the next step is to realize that well-coached teams are going to take away what's comfortable for us. We're getting better at [making adjustments]."