Moments after last night's volleyball match, University of Hawai'i outside hitter Eric Kalima held up a bent aluminum pole, a souvenir of when he hurdled a courtside table and fell into the stands while trying to keep alive a play.

"He really landed hard," UH coach Mike Wilton said. "He's smiling now, but he's going to be hurting later."

But on this night, Kalima — and his teammates — were hurting so good following a 30-19, 30-21, 34-32 victory over Penn State in the opening round of the Outrigger Invitational.

A Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 2,196 watched the Warriors use powerful serving, accurate passing and light-hearted enthusiasm to improve to 2-1.

"I had so much fun in that match," UH middle blocker Dio Dante said. "We were all pretty pumped up. We were all pretty motivated to win."

Even Wilton, an ex-Marine who masks his emotions behind a Texas hold'um demeanor, admitted to being entertained.

"The game is supposed to be fun, the last time I checked," Wilton said. "If you're doing your job, it's fun. For the most part, we had fun."

The good times rolled early for the Warriors, whose serves led to sloppy passes and kept the Nittany Lions from running their quick offense.

The Warriors scored 39 points on plays initiated by their serves, including 14 points each in Games 1 and 2. In contrast, the Nittany Lions scored four points when they served in the first game.

"We really came out and focused on our serving and took them out of their game right away," UH setter Brian Beckwith said.

Of the Nittany Lions' first five passes, none was placed inside the 3-meter line.

Their best attacker, Alex Gutor, was benched after his first three passes went backward. "I didn't want him to just step aside," PSU coach Mark Pavlik said. "The only bad thing is, if I sent him any (farther), he'd be in an ocean right now."

One play later, after UH increased its lead to 10-5, PSU setter Dan O'Dell followed Gutor to the sideline. O'Dell, who was replaced by Luke Murray, did not return until Game 3, when he was used as a serving specialist.

"There's some responsibility on a setter for a team that isn't a great passing team," Pavlik said. "I wasn't pleased with the sets Danny was giving the hitters. We just didn't get good swings."

UH's Dante said the the strategy was this: Serve to anybody but libero Aaron Smith, the only Nittany Lion wearing a white jersey. He received only 25 of UH's 93 serves.

"We wanted to serve to the blue shirts," said Dante, whose float serves led to 14 UH points. "You would never suspect that floater would work. Who needs a jump serve? I hate float serving, but the coaches like it. Coach (Wilton) tells me to do it. I do what the coach tells me."

Even when the Nittany Lions were in rhythm, they faced a two-tier obstacle of UH's imposing block and a scrappy back row led by libero Alfee Reft. In the third game, Reft made a sprawling dig along the sideline to set up Matt Carere's kill for a 33-32 lead. On the next play, Lauri Hakala hammered aloha ball.

"Did you see that last dig?" Dante gushed. "Oh my gosh, the hair is raising on my arms. Alfee is such a great player. His digging is amazing."

Reft deflected praise, saying, "It was good blocking. It's all credit to them. They were going straight up, leaving nice channels to make digs. It makes it so much easier to play back there when they're blocking like that."

Beckwith parlayed the digs and passes into high sets to the perimeter attackers. Hakala and Carere each had 15 kills. José José Delgado, who started and played in the first two games, hammered 10 kills and hit .444.

"We were controlling the ball really well," Beckwith said. "That enabled me to get so many opportunities to my hitters. When we have ball control like that, I can go anywhere, and it makes it tough for the opposing team. They have to worry about five guys hitting at all times."

OHIO STATE 3, UCLA 0

In the opener, Mark Greaves slammed 14 kills and the Buckeyes contained the Bruins' powerful outside hitting for a surprising 30-27, 32-30, 30-28 victory.

By improving to 6-0, the Buckeye beat the Bruins for the first time.

"We were 0-13 against them," OSU coach Pete Hanson said. "This was huge."

The Bruins (2-3) entered with a height advantage at nearly every position. Hanson recalled telling his players: "Hey, fellas, you've got two ways to go with this thing. You can walk in there and be intimidated and say, 'We don't belong here,' or step up and play."

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.