After weeks of California Dreamin', the No. 6 Penn State men's volleyball team was busy this past week playing five matches.

With the stretch of competition came a chance for the Nittany Lions (12-5, 6-0 EIVA) to travel west and prove themselves against top-flight competition.

Including an easy dispatching of Mercyhurst on March 9, Penn State posted a record of 2-3 over the break -- and accomplished head coach Mark Pavlik's main objective.

"Every time we come out here, we want to, by the time we get home, find out a little more about our team," Pavlik said. "It was very, very encouraging."

In wins against Mercyhurst, 3-0, and No. 4 University of California-Santa Barbara, 3-2, the rising pair of sophomores Max Holt and Matt Anderson re-wrote the school's rally-scoring-era (2001 to present) record book.

Against Mercyhurst, Holt had a record-tying six aces out of Penn State's total of 15 -- also a school record.

"The future, how bright it looks for these two guys," Pavlik said. "Max [Holt] has the potential to be a spectacular server. Right now, his serve is erratic at best. But when he is on top of his game, he can take advantage of teams we have to play and score some points for us."

Against UC-Santa Barbara, Anderson posted 35 kills, besting the old record of 32.

"Matty [Anderson] is really developing into a pretty good right-side attacker. He's coming up with big kill after big kill," Pavlik said. "His confidence is high. I think he's starting to realize what he can be for us."

However, that's where the record-setting would end for the Lions, as they dropped their three remaining matches against No. 2 University of California-Irvine, 3-1, NAIA power California Baptist, 3-0 and No. 10 Long Beach State 3-2 (19-30, 30-27, 30-28, 26-30, 13-15).

Penn State played all three matches short-handed as setter Luke Mur-

ray suffered an ankle injury in the loss to UC-Irvine.

Coming down off a block, Murray landed awkwardly on his ankle and had to leave the match. He returned in that match but was limited in his mobility and rested for the remainder of the trip. He also missed the Mercyhurst match with a stomach illness.

"Luke probably had the worst week of his life," Pavlik said.

In his stead, backup setter Travis Foltz performed admirably by setting career-highs in assists against Cal Baptist and then again against Long Beach State.

"No matter who's on the court for us, the expectations remain high," Pavlik said. "The team really rallied around Foltzy."

After learning more about his team, Pavlik said the team knows what it needs to work on in order to compete with the same teams in five to six weeks, when they would see them in the Final Four.

"I think we found a few things to work on in the gym," Pavlik said. "No question in my mind, we improved as a team this week."