It was business as usual for the No. 9 men's volleyball team (7-4, 4-0 EIVA) in its Friday match at Saint Francis (6-6, 3-2 EIVA).

The Nittany Lions certainly weren't gracious guests, as they pummeled the Red Flash to the tune of a three-game sweep (30-24, 30-22, 30-26).

This is the second time this season that the Lions got the best of St. Francis, and it was their sixth win in a row.

It wasn't the team's prettiest match by any stretch. It only blocked six balls all match, about 4.5 less than their match average.

But as the saying goes, a win's a win.

"It wasn't our best performance, but did what we had to do to win," senior co-captain Nate Meerstein said. "We played some good volleyball throughout the night which is a plus."

What's more important for the Lions has been playing with consistency and not giving away easy points. That wasn't a problem against St. Francis.

"We stayed real consistent and didn't make many errors," head coach Mark Pavlik said. "We didn't give up stretches of points and every time St. Francis raised its level of play, we raised ours."

In defense of the Red Flash's pummeling, physically, they didn't really match up with the Lions from the start.

It was the Lions' ability to take advantage of those mismatches that ultimately led to the sweep.

"Physically we're just better and just stronger than they are," Pavlik said. "It was a very workman-like effort at a high level."

The first point of the first match, middle hitter Max Holt put his first serve into the net. Would that foreshadow how the freshmen would perform the rest of the night?

Not so much.

Holt netted a career-high in kills with 11 on 15 swings for a .667 clip.

Not to be upstaged by his freshmen understudy, Meerstein recorded 12 kills with no errors, also on a .667 clip.

Senior outside Matt Proper had 12 kills, and Matt Anderson had his first collegiate double-double with 12 kills and 11 digs.

There were some new faces that stepped up big for the Lions too. Setter Luke Murray stepped in for Dan O'Dell to allow O'Dell to rest his knee. He didn't disappoint, notching a career high in assists with 49.

Alex Gutor also saw a starter's minutes and contributed seven kills and four digs.

The Red Flash only managed to hit at .263 clip as a team (including .077 in the third game). Compare that with the Lion's .421 hitting percentage, and it's clear that St. Francis couldn't pound it out with Penn State.

After traveling for the last two weekends, the Lions will finally return home next weekend to play Rutgers-Newark on Friday and George Mason on Saturday.

The hometown fans are sure to get the team up and ready to go.

"Sometimes it's harder when we're playing away games," Meerstein said. "But we all love playing at Rec Hall and that's enough to get us motivated."

The way the Lions are playing now, "motivated" is the last thing any of their opponents want to see.