When mixed well, talent and teamwork can combine to overcome inexperience. A young but driven men's club volleyball team willed its way to a third-place finish at this weekend's Spartan "Back to the Hardwood" Classic at Michigan State.

Despite multiple new starters and limited time to prepare, the team, one of 40 participants from all over the country, went down yesterday in the semifinals to a Marquette team that won last year's club national championship.

"We just got tired," said junior opposite Nate Mountain. "We hung with them for a while, but we just kind of ran out of gas."

The team believes it belongs on the same court as Marquette, but struggled to keep up the pace following a demanding quarterfinal match against tournament host Michigan State.

"We came out well," junior setter Gary White said, "but it was a long two days."

In Saturday's pool play, the team breezed through its four-team division, easily winning every match and losing only one game all day. Each pool's winner played the other's Saturday evening with bracket placement on the line. Penn State landed a top seed for Sunday's tournament play.

They began tournament play strong, easily dismantling Cincinnati. Their first test was against Michigan State, and without junior middle hitter Andrew Elmore, who was unable to travel this weekend, the team fought hard to beat the Spartans.

"Michigan State was tough," freshman hitter Nick Overbaugh said. "Their entire front line was like 6-foot-5."

Unfortunately, after a draining win in the quarterfinals, the squad could not beat a skilled Marquette team, ending its unexpected run.

Despite the early exit, the team says the tournament was a successful start to the season.

"We played pretty well, very well for the amount of time we've been practicing and all the new people on the team," White said.

White, a new setter, said he was happy with his play, but was quick to praise his teammates.

"We had great passing all week and could pretty much run any offense we wanted," he said.

In his first tournament, Overbaugh said he thought he proved he belonged.

"My inexperience showed, but I thought I held my own against the big boys," he said.

The team will continue to work hard in practice to develop a team identity before it hosts its annual tournament on the weekend of Dec. 3. It hopes to build on what it thought was a very promising and confident start to the year.

With his first tournament under his belt, Overbaugh knows what he and the team are capable of.

"We pretty much breezed through everybody," he said. "It was a good warm-up tournament."