This weekend the No. 9 Penn State men's volleyball team traveled to Honolulu to take part in the Outrigger Hotels Invitational -- a tournament Penn State has enjoyed little success in with a 6-24 record there the past 13 years.
In the tournament opener Friday against No. 2 Brigham Young, the Nittany Lions appeared destined to repeat history.
Penn State hit just .112 as a team and made 24 hitting errors en route to losing 3-0 (22-30, 23-30, 18-30).
"You can't have that many errors when you're playing a team like BYU," Penn State head coach Mark Pavlik said on the team's Web site.
Adding to their struggles against BYU, outside hitters Alex Gutor (nine hitting errors) and Matt Anderson (seven hitting errors) posted dismal hitting percentages, with Anderson hitting at a negative clip.
"But that's why we come to this tournament," Pavlik said, "to face great teams early, to learn what we have to do and where we have to be."
However, Saturday night the Lions rebounded from their loss to the Cougars with a promising showing against tournament host No. 3 Hawaii.
Penn State made significant noise against the Warriors, not only defeating the highly touted squad in front of its home crowd -- but sweeping it 3-0 (30-27, 30-24, 32-30).
"It was very gratifying to see the team bounce back from the performance they had last night and just put that behind them," Pavlik said.
Unlike the previous night when the Lions struggled mightily on offense, the team hit .348 and was able to cut down on its hitting errors.
Directing the Penn State attack from his position at setter was Luke Murray, who posted 50 assists and nine digs as he out dueled his more hyped counterpart Brian Beckwith (40 assists and three digs).
Also aiding Penn State in its upset bid were, in no small coincidence, both Gutor and Anderson.
Enjoying productive games, Gutor provided 22 kills on his way to a .410 hitting percentage and Anderson -- Hawaii's primary serving target -- chipped in with a career-best 18 kills.
"I thought our offense clicked, our passing was solid and the defense we played tonight may have been the best defensive effort that I have seen from a Penn State team in a long time," Pavlik said.
"To get out of here with a three-game win over Hawaii, I know good things are happening."
