Penn State men's volleyball coach Mark Pavlik kept his hands on his hips and paced the sideline throughout Friday's match as his players struggled to shake off jetlag.

In their first match since winning the Hawaii Outrigger Tournament last week, the No. 3 Nittany Lions (4-0) defeated Lewis University 3-1 (30-28, 28-30, 30-26, 30-22) in Rec Hall in a hard-fought match that featured sloppy play and rusty players.

Penn State historically struggles in its first match after returning from the Hawaii tournament. Last year, the team fell behind early to Ohio State before coming to life and winning in four games.

"The guys have to overcome the jetlag and get their feet back under them," Pavlik said. "They're big guys sitting for hours in a cramped plane seat, and then to get them out on the court takes a while to adjust."

Penn State only pulled away from Lewis (0-1) in the fourth and final game. Middle hitter Max Holt led the team with 14 kills and recorded a hitting percentage of .391. Outside hitter Matt Anderson added 13 kills, while outside hitter Jay Stauffer contributed 10 on a .450 clip.

Lewis fought aggressively at the net. Jared Dayton led all players with 21 kills, while Drew Pickering provided 13. The blocking battle was close, with Penn State edging the Flyers, 13.5-12.

"They were a well-coached team," Stauffer said. "They had a strategy to take our middle hitters out of the game, and we were forced to respond by moving our middles around the court more."

Penn State had difficulty getting into a rhythm early. Many times Penn State took a two -or three-point lead only to suffer a service error or lose a rally, giving Lewis the serve and momentum.

"Our timing was off for the first half of the match," middle hitter Max Lipsitz said. "I wasn't connected well with Luke [Murray]. We just started off slow."

Penn State dealt with lineup changes as well. Anderson came late to the match because of personal reasons and entered midway through the second game. Opposite Ryan Sweitzer suffered back spasms in the third game that kept him sidelined for the remainder of the match.

The team was forced to use back-up players more often than usual. Freshman outside hitters Thomas Pereira and Alan Mars saw significant time. It took a few games for the regulars to adjust to the altered lineups.

"As we progressed through the match, we finally got used to each other on the court," Stauffer said.

Lewis' offensive problems proved too much for the Flyers to overcome by the end of the match. Though formidable defensively, the visitors attacked with only a .173 hitting percentage. Penn State's team clip was .254. Lewis recorded 24 service errors, compared to Penn State's 17.

"We knew if we could take their setter off the net, they would have problems," Pavlik said. "The second half of the match saw a lot of their attack go out of bounds."