The No. 9 Penn State men's volleyball team was involved in a classic David vs. Goliath match on Saturday night against NYU.

The match wouldn't end in any type of "lovable underdog overcomes the odds" story, though.

The Violets (7-10, 0-9 EIVA) fought tough and even managed to take a game off the Nittany Lions (12-6, 9-0 EIVA) in the process, but in the end they would still fall 3-1 (30-25, 25-30, 30-13, 30-22).

"Game one, three and four I thought we were in complete control," head coach Mark Pavlik said. "It was just us exerting our physical advantages. When we could get the balls to our hitters, we had huge success."

Senior starting setter Dan O'Dell was forced to watch his teammates from the sidelines due to a knee injury.

Luke Murray took his place and didn't waste the opportunity to step up.

The sophomore had a career night in just about every aspect of his game against NYU. He had career-highs in assists with 61, service aces with four and digs with seven.

His efforts didn't go unnoticed by the coaching staff.

"I thought he did a pretty good job even though he didn't have much to work with. He was still giving guys hittable sets," Pavlik said. "Overall, I thought he did a real good job of getting everyone into the offense."

Max Holt was one of the main beneficiaries of all those hittable sets.

The middle hitter led the Lions in kills with a career high 14 on 17 swings, good for a .765 hitting percentage.

Junior outside hitter Alex Gutor added 13 kills on a season high .529 clip, while Matt Anderson did his part, chipping in with 12 kills against the Violets.

Patrick Fenton was the high man in kills for NYU with 15.

As a team, the Lions hit at a super-efficient .478 clip, while holding the Violets to a sub par .228.

Part of their low hit clip could be credited to the Lions defense, which has been a bit of an Achilles heal for the team this year.

Digging balls has been the main theme in practice, and the team was able to do a better job of that when they went up against NYU.

"We've been working a lot on our defense, digging balls in the back [row] and making sure we're not making easy plays harder," senior co-captain Nate Meerstein said.

"We have to start making some big plays back there."

And with a big match against No. 11 Ohio State (17-6) looming on Wednesday night, the team knows that it'll have to rise its defense to another level.