Correction appended

The No. 1 Penn State men's volleyball team defeated No. 2 Pepperdine 3-1 (27-30, 33-31, 30-25, 30-23) Saturday night in Irvine, Calif., to become the first school east of the Mississippi to win an NCAA volleyball championship.

Junior outside hitter Matt Anderson led the way for the Nittany Lions with 29 kills and sophomore middle hitter Max Lipsitz added 17 kills while hitting .500 for the match. Junior middle hitter Max Holt tallied 12 kills and junior opposite Ryan Sweitzer notched 10 of his own giving the Lions four players with double-digit kills in the title match.

The Lions backed up their season-high 18.5 block performance in the semifinals against Ohio State with a new season-high of 19 blocks against the Waves. The Lions outblocked Pepperdine 19-10 for the match and outhit them .407 to .273.

"We were able to over .400 in the national championship match," coach Mark Pavlik said. "And that was against a pretty good team on the other side of the net."

This article incorrectly states that the Penn State men's volleyball team is the first team from east of the Mississippi River to win an NCAA title. Penn State is the first team from east of the Mississippi to win an NCAA title on the West Coast.