It was a familiar sight for most members of the No. 8 Penn State men's volleyball team as it began the 2007 regular season in the same place where the 2006 regular season ended.

However, after traveling to Indiana this weekend for two matches, the Nittany Lions did not finish with the same outcome they had last year when they defeated Ball State and IPFW.

Penn State (1-1) finished with a draw, winning its first match against No. 15 Ball State 3-0 (30-28, 30-22, 30-22) on Friday and then losing its second match against No. 7 IPFW 3-0 (28-30, 28-30, 25-30) on Saturday.

Despite sweeping the Cardinals, and then getting swept by the Mastodons, Penn State coach Mark Pavlik is confident in his team and pleased with the outcome of the trip.

"We are creating lots of opportunities, we are not worrying what the scoreboard says, and I just really like the competitive effort of this group," Pavlik said. "I'm heartened with what we saw in six games this weekend."

The games against Ball State (1-2) were not easy wins for the Lions. They started the match slowly and had to battle back to beat the Cardinals. With each game, however, they got stronger, playing tougher defense and making fewer errors.

IPFW (2-0) was a more formidable opponent for Penn State, forcing it to be more physical than it had to be against Ball State. The team continued to use the resilience it showed against the Cardinals by bringing each game down to the wire, but was unable to capitalize on the opportunities it created.

"We played better tonight than we did yesterday," Pavlik said "IPFW is just that much better than us at the moment."

Two players highlighted the offense this weekend. Senior Alex Gutor led the team in kills in both matches, notching 17 against Ball State and 15 against IPFW.

Sophomore Matt Anderson followed in Gutor's path, tallying 11 in each game.

"Alex and Matty Anderson have the kill numbers, but that was more a function of the effort than anything else," Pavlik said. "When we needed to be good, it was really a team effort."

Defensively, the team did not have a very strong weekend, totaling eight blocks on Friday and six on Saturday. These stats, and the team's transition game, are two areas where Pavlik would like to see improvement.

With first-game jitters out of the way, the team can draw from the matches when it prepares for the Outrigger Invitational in two weeks.