The No. 11 Penn State men's volleyball had a lot to deal with this weekend. There was the 16-day layoff after a bad loss to Ohio State, a bicycle mishap, a lingering ankle injury and car accident for the star offensive player, and, oh yeah, two matches, including one with the No. 8 team in the land.

Before the Nittany Lions could even take the court, sophomore Matt Proper took a tumble from his bike after practice Thursday, hurting his wrist. Luckily, the injury wasn't serious, but another scare came after Friday's match, as junior Keith Kowal was in a car accident. Again, a Penn State athlete escaped with nothing more than a scare as Kowal was not injured badly enough to keep him off the court Saturday.

The Lions did not seemed fazed by any of the obstacles and easily defeated Sacred Heart 3-0 (30-24, 30-23, 30-23) Friday night, and won an epic match on Saturday against No. 8 Ball State 3-2 (27-30, 30-24, 30-28, 27-30, 15-13).

Saturday's match came down to a deciding fifth game, and it was one for the ages. The Lions found themselves down 3-1, but battled back to take a 10-8 lead. The Cardinals took a timeout to stop the run and responded, tying the score 12-12. Penn State could have let the match slip as it did earlier this season against UC-San Diego, but the Lions showed how they have matured and outlasted Ball State to take the game 15-13.

"These are the matches we play for," Proper said. "A five-game match, it gets down to the end of the game, I'm loving every minute of it."

Ball State came out fired up and confident, taking game one by exploiting the Lions on the outside with senior Jary Delgado. In game two, the Cardinals seemed to come down from the adrenaline high just a bit and Penn State was able to take the game rather easily by attacking the middle with Kowal and sophomore Nate Meerstein.

"This was a typical Penn State-Ball State match," Pavlik said. "The stats were pretty much even, but we were able to hang on. It was a great match."

"[Penn State] scored two more points than us," Ball State men's volleyball coach Joel Walton said. "The match could have went our way, but they made the big plays to get the win."

In games three and four, the Lions again attacked in the middle and the Cardinals went to the outside.

This match really showed how far the Lions have come since the beginning of the season. They had four players with double-digit kills to Ball State's two, and did not give up a long string of points.

"We only gave up three points in a row once in a five-game match tonight," Pavlik said. "A month ago we were giving up three-point runs on a regular basis."

Penn State had a plethora of personal records in the match. Proper had a personal-best 12 digs and the offense accounted for career-highs in kills and points for Kowal, Meerstein, and sophomore outside hitter Kevin Wentzel. Kowal's 28 kills were especially impressive after the car accident.

"I tried to stay away from Keith and not give him a chance to come to me and say 'Hey, I can't play tonight,' " Pavlik said. "If he plays this well after being in a car accident, I think we're going to send Meers [Meerstein] in the middle of the road on Atherton with a bicycle."

The win is a strong momentum builder for the EIVA tournament. Ball State has the size and skill of a national title contender, a fact that was not lost on the Lions.