The Penn State men’s volleyball team hosted two quality teams from California last weekend. After losing to UC Irvine on Friday, the Nittany Lions rebounded to sweep CS Northridge on Saturday.

On Friday, ninth-ranked Penn State took on seventh-ranked UC Irvine. The Nittany Lions started the first set well, and the score remained close for 17 points until UC Irvine went on an 8-4 run.  They won the first set, and dominated set two.  UC Irvine appeared well on its way to winning the match after going up 5-2 in the third set. Penn State was able to come back from the early deficit to win the third set 25-22. Any momentum the Nittany Lions may have had in the third set was gone after starting set four, however, and UC Irvine went on to win the set, and the match, 3-1 (25-21, 25-14, 22-25, 25-17).

Joe Sunder led the way for Penn State with 16 kills. Nick Turko had his best match of the year, getting 11 kills on a .625 hitting percentage. The rest of the team did not hit well, registering a .250 hitting percentage. The Nittany Lions also failed to get a block on Friday.

Penn State followed up their worst performance of the season with one of their best against 13th-ranked CS Northridge on Saturday. The Nittany Lions hit .357 as they swept the Matadors 3-0 (25-19, 25-22, 26-24). Scott Kegerreis led Penn State with 14 kills and Sunder had 11. The Nittany Lions had 10 blocks, led by Ian Hendries.

After the weekend games, Penn State’s record stands at 7-2 overall and 2-0 in conference play. The Nittany Lions have three games this week. First up is a road game on Wednesday against rival Ohio State followed by two home contests with conference opponents.

Upcoming schedule:

Wednesday: at Ohio State, 7 p.m.
Friday: Rutgers-Newark, 7 p.m.
Saturday: Princeton, 4 p.m.