When he looks at his squad these days, Penn State men's volleyball coach Mark Pavlik sees a different, much-improved team from the one that lost back-to-back five-gamers against Hawaii and Brigham Young to start the season. This weekend's matches at the Hall of Fame Classic in Springfield, Mass., will give the Nittany Lions an opportunity to show that improvement to a team Penn State has already faced.

Tonight the Lions will square off against Springfield (1-4), ranked No. 3 in Division III. The more important match, though, will come tomorrow against either fourth-ranked BYU or Ball State. Penn State beat the Cardinals in the fifth set two weeks ago, and is looking to avenge a painful loss to BYU.

"With either one of those teams, it'll be the first team that we get a chance to face again," Pavlik said. "That'll be a good chance to benchmark our progress."

The first match against the Cougars saw Penn State take a 2-0 lead over the defending national champions, only to have BYU come back and win it in five. After the match, Pavlik said it was as disappointing a contest in which he'd ever been involved.

"You always want to show a team that's already beaten you once, 'Look, you're going to have to come out and play awfully well again if you want to beat us again.' I hope that's where we can be at this point," Pavlik said this week.

That sentiment may very well be what Ball State feels if it gets a shot at the Lions this weekend. Pavlik feels it's difficult to beat a team consistently, unless it's just a matter of flat-out superiority.

Superiority, though, is a good word to sum up the success Penn State has had against host and EIVA foe Springfield, whom the Lions (5-2, 1-0 EIVA) will play at 7 tonight. The Lions are 24-0 all-time against Springfield, and Pavlik's team has shown few weaknesses to this point that would suggest a change in that trend on this occasion.

One possible cause for concern is the lower back injury of co-captain and All-American middle hitter Keith Kowal. The senior says he's improving, and Pavlik was pleased with the progress Kowal has made in practice this week, but the coach also said he'd take a wait-and-see approach. Kowal sat out the first match last weekend and played in the Saturday contest against Ohio State, a pattern that could be followed this weekend, with the more challenging match most likely coming on Saturday.

"It would be real nice to have him this weekend, but the ultimate goal is to have him there in late April and early May," Pavlik said.

Junior Matt Proper stepped up in Kowal's absence -- and even in his presence -- last weekend, as he set a career high in kills at 22 on Friday, then matched it on Saturday. Proper's performance earned him EIVA Player of the Week honors.

"When Keith's down it's going to shift the balls to the outside a little bit ... so the balls are gonna come our way," Proper said.

Even with Kowal on the court last Saturday, he still was not feeling up to a level at which he was comfortable. His teammates understood this and dealt with it as best they could.

"I used him more as a decoy on the attack than I usually would," junior setter Dan O'Dell said.

Even without Kowal being at full strength, Pavlik still likes what he sees from the Lions, and knows that if they get another shot at BYU, the Cougars best not find themselves down 0-2 again.

"I know we've improved in the last month since we've played BYU."