A killer instinct. Some teams have and some don't. It is usually the difference between a good team and a great team. Last night, the No. 8 Penn State men's volleyball team (15-6) showed that it is among the great teams in the nation, as the Lions swept Ohio State 3-0 (30-22, 30-22, 30-23).

Right from the beginning, the Lions took advantage of the Buckeyes by never allowing them to score more than two points in a row in the first game.

"The guys on the side of the blue and white played pretty well, while the guys on the side of the red and black played pretty poorly," Ohio State men's volleyball coach Pete Hanson said. "Our guys struggled individually and collectively, we just didn't show up. I think it was a carbon copy of the match in Columbus, except it was flipped around."

Penn State's defense played a tremendous match, quite possibly its best all season. The Lions recorded 10.5 blocks and 37 digs, which is unheard of in a three-game match. Penn State touched just about every ball hit by Ohio State and kept the Buckeyes offense on its heels.

"22, 22, 23 is something your expected to do to a team that is down," Penn State coach Mark Pavlik said. "Our intensity level, our emotional level, our performance level was just dozens of notches above where it has been the last two or three week. I was real pleased with our focus."

The Lions offense wasn't bad either against the smaller Buckeye block. Junior middle hitter Keith Kowal continued his outstanding play, recording 13 kills while committing just two errors. The hitting errors weren't as big a problem for Penn State last night as they had been in the team's last few matches. The Lions recorded just 11 errors in three games and none of them where in a pressure situation like they were against Rutgers on Friday.

Superfrosh Alex Gutor continued his marvelous play, recording 11 kills in the match. He got started in game two and never let up. The block opened up for Gutor because of sophomore outside hitter Kevin Wentzel's seven-kill effort in game one.

"I thought the set distribution was good," Pavlik said, referring to the Lions three players with double digit kills. "With Alex in the lineup we are a much more dynamic team on offense. You just can't key on one or two guys in the front row when he's out there."

One problem for Penn State has been folding in pressure situations and last night the Lions never allowed Ohio State to get them into that situation. The Buckeyes never got closer than two points late in games before the Lions pulled away.

"The one thing is, can we keep this energy going in the practice gym? If we can, we're going to be a pretty hard team to beat," Pavlik said. "We kept putting pressure on them and never got into a situation where they put pressure on us. I can't wait to see what we do when we get in those situations."

This is definitely a different team than years past, with many of the players never having played in an NCAA tournament game.

That same inexperience may help the Lions because the young guys don't know to be nervous in more important games.

"Now I have to step up and be the leader," Penn State senior libero Ricky Mattei said. "If we do win the national championship this year, it will be more rewarding because of the effort we have put in to it."