After the No. 2 Penn State women's volleyball team's great escape from Game 2 Saturday, the Nittany Lions went into the locker room while the Long Island players sat in folding chairs on the sideline, trying to savor the moment.

Penn State had narrowly pulled out a 30-27 win in the NCAA second-round tournament game, and in an effort to save some semblance of momentum, the Blackbirds spent the first half of the intermission between Games 2 and 3 on the sideline.

Long Island middle blocker Weronika Swiatczak even danced along with the Penn State Dance Team on the sideline. Long Island eventually headed to its locker room, content.

But the Lions were determined to continue their own dance through the tournament, taking a 12-1 lead in Game 3 and eventually finishing a sweep of the Blackbirds, 30-11, 30-27, 30-8 at Rec Hall.

"In the second game we struggled and made a lot of errors that made the game closer," Penn State women's volleyball coach Russ Rose said. "Coming out of the second game I thought we played our best game of the six we've played to date."

It was Penn State's second victory of the weekend, putting the Lions into the NCAA Regional Championships, which will take place at 6 p.m. Friday in Rec Hall vs. Tennessee. The Lions also swept Binghamton in the first round on Friday (30-15, 30-8, 30-10).

Penn State's quick Game 3 start against the Blackbirds stole away any momentum the heavy underdogs took from the previous game.

"In some ways [momentum] did carry over for us but I think they really stepped it up too," Long Island women's volleyball coach Toby Rens said. "They responded just as great teams do."

Rens described the Lions as "error free" in Game 3. Freshman Nicole Fawcett was also perfect of sorts, registering 16 kills on an errorless 18 attempts to set a new NCAA tournament record for hitting percentage in a match with a .889 percent clip.

If Penn State had lost Game 2 in the Long Island match, it would have not meant much in the grand scheme of things, but it still would have been only eight game losses suffered by the Lions all season. And that could have come after Penn State out-blocked the Blackbirds 15-4.

Rose pointed out Penn State's 14 blocking, hitting and serving errors as the reason for his team's woes in the second game. The Blackbirds hit .075 in that game, along with -.036 for the match. Rose's frustration was evident when he came out of his seat to argue a side judge's call for the first time all season.

"When you give the other team almost half their points and you do that against somebody who's playing well, then you are going to lose the game," Rose said. "You can run into a lines judge that is having a tough night or a referee that is having a tough night and all of those factors can come into play."

In Game 3, Fawcett hit 7-of-8 attempts. When Rose was asked if the Long Island players had ever seen a shot hit as hard as Fawcett's, he replied, "Not in this country." That is because many of the Blackbirds are international players who have played competitive club volleyball in Europe.

"When I looked at Long Island's roster, I though I was looking at the U.N.," Rose said before the match.

But when it was all over, the Blackbirds' diversity didn't help them stay in the dance. Instead, Penn State will advance to tougher competition in the following weeks.

"They're a great team and very worthy of their ranking," Rens said. "They'll continue to do well in this tournament."