Early this season the No. 7 Penn State men's volleyball team has begun to develop the bad habit of starting off slow, and in its wins, having to battle back and take control of its match.

This was the case yet again, as Penn State stumbled through Game 1 before ultimately winning its EIVA opener last night against Division III No. 1 Juniata 3-0 (30-28, 30-21, 30-23).

The Nittany Lions (4-2, 1-0 EIVA) struggled early to adjust to the Juniata attack, and on the strength of errors -- including three on outside hitter Matt Anderson's first three touches -- found themselves trailing a lesser Eagles team.

"What I'm more concerned about now is that physically, we're as good as anybody, but mentally, it brings our physical level down," Penn State men's volleyball coach Mark Pavlik said. "If we do some things maybe a little bit more intelligently, and follow the game plan a little bit better, I'm not so sure it's as close as it was."

As was the case in the Lions' other wins this season, they eventually overcame their opening woes, and barely took Game 1.

"To know that you're getting beat late in a game by a team that you know you're better than... I think this season it's taken us a while to get into the flow of things, I knew that we'd be fine, even if they took that first game. I was just mad," Penn State middle hitter Max Holt said.

After overcoming a deficit that peaked at five points in Game 1, the Lions came out swinging in Game 2 and improved upon their .267 team hitting percentage -- a percentage that included seven hitting errors -- and posted a Game 2 hitting percentage of .696.

After its struggles in Game 1, Penn State cruised to the victory, as the Lions committed only five hitting errors over the final two games.

Even after Penn State swept Juniata, it was the latest slow start that frustrated the Lions.

"We just weren't sharp," Pavlik said. "We weren't sharp with maybe the purpose, the meaningful movement we need to have on the court and really establish our physical advantage as early as I would have liked."

With the win over the Eagles, Penn State finds itself at the top of the EIVA Tait Division, tied with Saint Francis and East Stroudsburg, and in position to take control of the EIVA once again.

In the end, however, Pavlik and the Lions will take the victory, but it's back to work soon as Friday marks the first of two consecutive nights on which the Penn State will face other EIVA foes.

"EIVA win number one," Pavlik said, "and now we have to get ready for Saint Francis on Friday."