Every championship-caliber team has a variety of tests that it must face.

While these tests can range greatly in difficulty, the best teams find a way to pass them all.

The men's volleyball team will face its first true test of the season when it faces No. 14 Ball State at 7 p.m. tomorrow night at Rec Hall.

The Nittany Lions' first match was last night against St. Francis (0-2, 0-1 EIVA), but that match might be best compared to a five-question attendance quiz, rather than an actual test for the team.

The Lions (1-0, 1-0) defeated the Red Flash 3-1 (30-21, 28-30, 30-19, 30-24) and were led by junior outside hitter Alex Gutor.

Gutor finished with 21 kills, two shy of his career high, and a hitting percentage of .515 in the 3-1 (30-21, 28-30, 30-19, 30-24) Penn State victory.

He basically carried the team single handedly in the first two games, but after an impassioned halftime speech from senior co-captain Nate Meerstein, the Lions put together a much stronger team effort the rest of the way.

"I know sometimes when we play teams like St. Francis in the middle of the year you're sort of in a lull, but I just figured first game of the year, everyone would be excited an pumped up and it wouldn't be a question," Meerstein said.

"I just called everybody out because pretty much everybody said we just wanted to change the way we played, and no one was doing it, including myself."

The Nittany Lions finished hitting .371, and in Game 3, hit an astronomical .485. Meerstein hit .417 with 15 kills and senior co-captain Proper hit .344 with 15 kills.

Ball State, which is more of a fifty-question calculus exam then an attendance quiz, has much more depth.

"If you give Ball State a chance to score easy points, they're going to hurt you dearly," Penn State men's volleyball coach Mark Pavlik said.

Luckily for the Lions, they may have a cheat sheet for this one.

They saw Ball State during the preseason and came out on top, 3-2.

"Tendencies are tendencies. What you do under pressure, you do under pressure," Pavlik said. "The team that can elevate their game for the longest time will win. I'm not sure if there's any advantage, but it helps us to reinforce in our minds what they want to do."

Another determining factor in this contest could be the play of the Lions' two freshmen starters.

Matt Anderson and Max Holt played their first collegiate regular season match of the year against St. Francis, and both had their ups and downs.

Pavlik hopes to see them progress quickly from game to game.

"We have two new guys that have to fill a role," Pavlik said. "[Games like St. Francis] give us opportunities to gain confidence, and acclimate them."

To win a tough match up like tomorrow's, Penn State will need to find holes in Ball State's blocking, and the best way to do that might be to keep the ball away from middle attacker Zoran Grabovac.

The senior is Ball State's most prolific blocker; currently ranking 18th on the school's all-time list after three seasons with 245.

Although the team has seen Ball State before, Pavlik has reinforced that the regular season is an entirely different story.

"I told them it ain't preseason anymore Dorothy," Pavlik said. "This is big boy volleyball."