Will Price had a match-high 22 kills, but none was more important than his last.

Price's final kill clinched victory for the top-ranked Penn State men's volleyball team as the Nittany Lions defeated No. 7 USC 3-2 (27-30, 30-23, 30-19, 29-31, 15-12) in the season-opening Outrigger Invitational in Honolulu.

"It wasn't a work of art by any stretch," Penn State coach Mark Pavlik said. "But we kept hanging in there and when we needed to be at our best we competed."

Senior middle hitter Max Holt tallied seven service aces on the night, making him the Lions' all-time leader in career aces in the rally-scoring era with 135. The previous record holder was Zeljko Koljesar who had 130 aces from 2000-2003.

For the match, Penn State had 12 service aces while USC's was only able to tally three.

"I thought we served tough, we put USC in some real predictable situations and they've got some hitters and they hit there way out of it at times but they also made some errors and had some shots blocked," Pavlik said.

The Lions have very little time to regroup following this victory. Penn State will take on No. 11 Ohio State at 9 p.m. EST Friday in a rematch of last year's national semifinal.