Volleyball returned to the Penn State campus this weekend, finally dispatching a storied era while ushering in a new generation in the women's program.

Gone are Sam Tortorello and Kaleena Walters. In are Megan Hodge, Alisha Glass and Jessica Yanz. At times, the transition looked smooth. Other times this weekend, the transition looked bumpy.

But three matches later, the Lions put together enough to get through an opening weekend at home. No. 2 Penn State remained perfect (6-0) at the Penn State Invitational tournament.

On Friday, the Lions beat Eastern Kentucky, 3-0 (30-23, 30-16, 30-18), Saturday they beat West Virginia, 3-0 (30-11, 30-14, 30-14) in the morning match and beat Duke, 3-0 (30-18, 30-18, 30-22), in the nightcap.

Last weekend, Penn State swept Nicholls State and Rice and outlasted LSU, 3-2, at the LSU invitational in Baton Rouge, La.

"Our tempo is getting a little better," Penn State coach Russ Rose said, "but we're making a couple of young errors in critical situations that I think are going to be problematic when we get on the road next weekend and when we get into Big Ten play."

The weekend's action built up to the Lions' post-football-game match against the Blue Devils. Duke (5-1), picked in one preseason poll to win the Atlantic Coast Conference title, came into Saturday night's match undefeated, though, at that point, Penn State was playing its best volleyball of the weekend.

Paced from the left-side attack by outside hitters Nicole Fawcett and the highly-touted freshman Hodge, Penn State was able to knife through the Blue Devils' non-existent block -- they stopped only one ball -- with regularity.

Fawcett, named MVP of the tournament, finished with a match-high 19 kills on .545 hitting. Hodge, with her best outing as a Lion, had 16 kills at a .464 clip. Hodge was impressive against Duke and at times throughout the weekend, combining power with finesse, able to rock shots at helpless defenders or place pinpoint kills in the corners. Penn State hit .455 as a team and finished with 16 blocks. Duke was held to .100 hitting.

"To be honest I was really nervous, actually, the very first match," Hodge said. "My legs were shaking the entire [time]. But, I've kind of adjusted. I feel like I'm playing better now. I like it here, there are a lot of people, a lot of fan support. It's fun."

But despite the effort from the outside, Rose said, freshman setter Glass didn't use enough of her options against Duke.

Glass, who is currently in a position battle of sorts with fellow freshman Yanz, dished 39 assists. Even she acknowledged that not enough attention was paid to the middle and opposite hitters.

"Hopefully, in more of our matches coming up we're going to get a better distribution, especially from my end," Glass said, "so we can work on it and spread the block out more. But tonight these girls were having a great night, so I gave them the ball."

Whoever emerges as the top setter, either Glass or Yanz, is expected to help fill in for the departed Tortorello, a three-time All-America setter. Filling in for Walters, the 2005 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, at the libero spot, Penn State used junior Kate Price and sophomore Laura Holloway this past weekend.

The absence of Tortorello and Walters was particularly evident earlier in the weekend. On Friday against Eastern Kentucky, the Lions' had difficulty passing and establishing their offense, hitting only .200 during the first game. They rebounded in the second and third game and finished hitting at a .342 rate.

Against West Virginia the Lions steadied and hit .447 as a team and limited the Mountaineers to -.011 hitting.