The Penn State men’s volleyball team opened up their conference schedule with two victories last weekend. Joe Sunder led the Nittany Lions in kills in both of the wins.

On Friday, Penn State took on St. Francis. The Nittany Lions seemed to be flat throughout the match, but were still able to pull out a 3-1 (25-18, 20-25, 25-19, 25-22) win. Penn State seemed troubled by the Saint Francis block, while only scoring four of their own. Despite their troubles, Penn State simply had too much talent for Saint Francis. Sunder had 28 kills in the victory, and Scott Kegerreis contributed seven.

The Nittany Lions performed better on Saturday, leading to a 3-0 (25-22, 25-15, 25-18) sweep of Springfield on Saturday afternoon. Sunder led the Nittany Lions in kills, as he has in every match this year, with 15. Springfield kept the score close in the first set, but never really threatened to win. Penn State easily took sets two and three for the sweep. Libero Dennis Del Valle impressed the crowd with his ten digs, and setter Edgardo Goas tallied 32 assists. Goas also wowed the crowd when he went into the stands to save a ball–a moment indicative of how hard the Nittany Lions played on Saturday.

With the victories, the Nittany Lions improve to 5-1 overall and 2-0 in conference play. Next week, Penn State has two home contests against competition that they are heavily favored to defeat.

Upcoming schedule:
Friday: vs. Loyola, 7 p.m.
Saturday: vs. Lewis, 7 p.m.