It wasn't exactly the best way to usher in the new year, but it's a start.

The fourth-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions beat the No. 11 Hawai'i Warriors, 21-30, 30-24, 30-20, 30-18, last night in the 14th Annual Outrigger Hotels Invitational at the Stan Sheriff Center before 1,277.

It was the season opener for both teams.

Penn State dominated nearly every facet of the match behind a veteran team that returns 10 players from last season's 22-8 EIVA champions and NCAA final four squad.

"They're more further evolved than we are. When they pass well, they're a hand-full. We really had a hard time," said Hawai'i head coach Mike Wilton.

Penn State rallied behind Matt Anderson (21 kills, 10 errors) and Ryan Sweitzer (15 kills, 8 errors), and Max Lipsitz produced a flawless performance, posting 14 kills with no errors and a team-high .778 hitting percentage. Middle hitter Max Holtz added nine kills and two errors.

Jim Clar led the Warriors with 15 kills and eight errors, followed by Jacob Schkud's 10 kills and five errors.

Hawai'i setter Sean Carney filled in nicely for departed All-American Brian Beckwith by dishing out 38 assists.

Game 1 was tied at 14-all before Hawai'i pulled away. Hawai'i hit .241 in the game, while Penn State was at .057. The Warriors also had four aces and six blocks.

"Game 1, we won the serving and serve-receiving battle," Wilton said. "They upgraded their serving quite a lot in Game 2 and we stopped serving so tough and that was the difference in the match."

The Nittany Lions led 15-12 in Game 2, when the Warriors took a timeout. Anderson's seventh kill put Penn State up 19-15 and Hawai'i couldn't recover.

"Our passing started getting a little worse, our serving wasn't there," Schkud said. "It's a snowball effect, out hitters weren't working too well; I wasn't stepping up too big."

Penn State hit .310 in the game, while Hawai'i hit .206.

The problems of Game 2 carried over to Game 3 as Wilton tweaked the lineup by putting in middle blocker Keali'i Frank in place of Steven Grgas.

But a kill by Sweitzer, followed by ace allowed the Nittany Lions to jump ahead 8-3. Later in the game, Brennon Dyer replaced Schkud at hitter and Nejc Zemljak replaced Carney at setter. At that point, Hawai'i trailed, 22-14.

Penn State hit .467, while Hawai'i was at .042.

Game 4 had more lineup changes for Hawai'i as Nemanja Komar, Justin Ching, Carney, Schkud, Rawson and Frank got extensive playing time.

Frank's consecutive kills, and a block by Carney and Frank tied it at 6-6. However, the Warriors couldn't sustain the momentum.

Penn State hit .355 in the fourth game, while Hawai'i hit .032.

"I'm never happy to lose, but there was a lot that was good tonight. We got to play a lot of people and there are a lot of good possibilities," Wilton said.

Hawai'i played without Matt Vanzant, who is on a "leave of absence," according to Wilton.

Reach Liane Yim at lyim@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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