Max Lipsitz rose to the net and outstretched his arms, blocking Loyola-Chicago's first swing of Friday night's match.

Lipsitz turned around after the block and pumped his arms before huddling to celebrate his team's aggressive start, as the block set the tone for the rest of the weekend's matches.

The No. 1 Penn State men's volleyball team outblocked and outmuscled two teams over the weekend, cruising to 3-0 sweeps against Loyola-Chicago (30-21, 30-18, 30-28) and IPFW (30-20, 30-27, 32-30).

Behind their stout blocking, the Nittany Lions (26-1) closed out the regular season with a .963 winning percentage ¾ tying a team record.

"Blocking tends to be the most physical part of the net play," Pavlik said.

"We were able to control the net this weekend, and another thing the block does is keep the crowd out of the match, and that's a big thing on the road."

Junior middle hitter Max Holt led the Lions against IPFW (12-14) with two solo blocks and five block assists, as five of the six Lion starters recorded at least four block assists on the night.

"We got back to the basics," Pavlik said.

"It wasn't anything magical. We just reinforced the things we went over earlier in the season in the practice gym, like getting to the right spot and getting our arms over the net, and then we did what we had to do."

After Games 1 and 2, the Lions outblocked IPFW 10-3. In Game 3, the Mastadon hitters ¾ and All-American outside hitter C.J. Macias ¾ challenged the Lions' block, but Penn State didn't panic.

With Game 3 tied at 30, the Mastadons were searching for a Macias kill to pick up the game. However, the trio of Holt, Ryan Sweitzer and Matt Anderson stuffed Macias for the go-ahead point, 31-30, then notched the match-point on another block by Holt and Sweitzer.

"We were able to get in good position and get the block," Holt said. "It was good to see we can play like that against a player as good as [Macias]."

The Lions have led the EIVA in nearly every category this season, except in blocking ¾ which was most noticeable in the Lions' lone loss of the season to conference foe

George Mason after being outblocked, 16-7.5.

After the long arms of the Lions' block fueled two big road wins this weekend, their blocking has progressively gotten better in the season's final weeks.

However, the Lions would like to see their improved blocking continue beyond the regular season finale.

"We just have to keep doing the things we do," Holt said. "We're a good passing team, a good serving team, a good defensive team, and hopefully now we're a good blocking team.

"Now we just have to put some things together and go for a national championship."