Doing their best 12th-man impression, 2,372 fans stood up anxiously and clapped in hopes that they were truly witnessing what looked to be a momentous upset for the Penn State men's volleyball team at the Penn State Invitational.

At 29-27, match point of Game 4 for the Nittany Lions, No. 3 Long Beach State (10-2, 5-1 MPSF) served. The ball was handled by the Lions, and set by Dan O'Dell.

Seemingly coming out of nowhere, senior co-captain Matt Proper rose up and fired home the game-winning kill, completing the 3-1 upset (30-22, 21-30, 30-20, 30-27) and reminding everyone that the No. 12 Lions (4-4, 2-0 EIVA) are still a legitimate championship contender.

"We've finally got a monkey off our back we've been waiting for," senior co-captain Nate Meerstein said. "That was the biggest win I could've used, I'll tell you that much."

The team has been competitive in these types of matches before, but couldn't seem to get the one or two points needed to win.

"We've been close, and we've been getting closer and finally things started to click tonight," Proper said. "Tonight things started rolling, and we were just having fun."

And it's even more fun when your team is playing at the level that the Lions were.

Meerstein finished with 14 kills on a .700 clip and five blocks. Kevin Wentzel added 11 kills of his own and also had four digs.

The young freshman stars Max Holt and Matt Anderson each had nine kills and nine blocks, a career-high for Anderson. Anderson also set a new career high in digs with seven.

Dan O'Dell had a whopping 60 assists, just four off his career high.

And of course there's Proper. Coming in, Long Beach State boasted Robert Tarr, one of the best outside hitters in the country. Tarr finished with 25 kills at a .409 percentage.

Tarr may have won the kills battle, but Proper's overall play definitely was a major part of Penn State's win. Proper had 21 kills, but on a much higher .581 clip. He also added seven digs and three blocks.

Penn State hosts the NCAA Championships in May, and it's the team's ultimate goal to be playing in the final four in front of its home crowd.

Head coach Mark Pavlik used that as motivation to inspire greatness out of the team.

"I told them to take a look around and hopefully in May we're in that same situation with maybe double the crowd," Pavlik said. "That's what's fun about it. This match with this crowd, you never want to lose the aggressiveness that brings you to that point."

As great of an upset that this was, this was an Invitational tournament, meaning that Penn State played another match before this one on Friday night -- it won that one, too.

That match was against EIVA opponent Juniata (3-2, 1-1 EIVA). The Lions would win that match in four games (30-23, 22-30, 30-18, 30-18). The second game was a very inconsistent game for Penn State, but it was able to dominate in the other three.

"I told the guys in the locker room, Game 2 is the way we can lose an EIVA match," Pavlik said. "Games 3 and 4 are the way we have to play against teams we have a physical advantage over."

The passing for Game 2 was especially poor. That's something that both Pavlik and the team won't tolerate.

"Game 2, I don't know what changed. We couldn't pass a ball," Pavlik said. "I have a grandmother, she's going to turn 100 on Feb. 9, and I know she could pass those balls better than we did."

Other than Game 2, though, the team's overall play was quite good. Proper and Anderson both had 14 kills. Meerstein had nine kills at a .667 clip, and Holt had a career-high 10 kills on 11 swings for a .909 percentage.

The team also hit at .406 while only allowing Juniata to hit .209.

After a great weekend, the team will get back in practice and prepare for another tough test next week against No. 8 Ohio State at the Volleyball Hall of Fame Classic in Springfield, Mass. As great as it is to beat a team like Long Beach State, the team always keeps things in perspective.

"This was a great match against a well-coached team," Pavlik said. "But no one wins a national championship in February."

Still with these two wins, everyone that was on the bandwagon at the start of the season and got off when the team was 1-4 might think about getting back on at the next stop.