Perhaps sluggish from the travel, the Lions (17-3, 5-0 EIVA) used the opening game against the Tritons to work out the kinks and get their rhythm back. That rhythm came too late for Penn State to salvage game one, but the Lions managed to put it all together in the second set. The Lions then won six of their next seven games.

In the next two contests, senior middle hitter Keith Kowal hit 0.725 to go with his calling-card statistic -- zero hitting errors. Kowal added 13 blocks to his robust hitting numbers, netting the co-captain national player of the week honors for the second time in three weeks.

"We played well, we blocked well, but our passing wasn't very consistent," Penn State coach Mark Pavlik said of the first two matches. "[Passing] was our concern, and that's exactly what happened against UCLA."

With three days of rest and 16 straight victories heading into last Tuesday's match with the Bruins, Penn State was able to do everything but handle the physical serving from the arms of so many UCLA players. The Lions hit 0.318 to UCLA's 0.265 and out-blocked their hosts 15.5-6, but the most crucial statistic in the match wound up being service aces: 9-1 in favor of the Bruins, who cruised to a 3-0 victory (30-22, 30-27, 30-28) on Penn State's passing mistakes.

The Lions came back home to face Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne on Saturday, notching a 3-0 sweep (30-22, 30-24, 30-24) of the Mastodons.