The men's volleyball team will have to deal with the Haitian Sensations and the Cyprus Standouts when it faces Rutgers-Newark at 7:30 tonight in Rec Hall.

"They have some guys that we've got to really watch out for," Coach Tom Peterson said. "The Haitians jump high, hit hard (and are) real experienced at international play."

The Raiders are led by Max Jeanty and Roselyn Desroches, who hail from Haiti, and Cyprus-natives Stylianos Savva and Mario Popantoniou. Junior outside hitter Desroches leads Rutgers-Newark in hitting percentage and total kills, and sophomore Jeanty is tops in blocks and kills per game.

"We've got to be ready for every shot, not just tendencies," Peterson said. "These guys -- a couple of them on Rutgers -- can do everything, so you've just got to be ready for them."

The Lions are 9-5 overall and 2-0 in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association after Monday's dismantling of Navy in three games. Penn State has moved up a spot to No. 11 in this week's AVCA Tachikara poll, while Rutgers-Newark (11-9 through last weekend) is tied for 15th with Loyola Marymount.

The Lions and Raiders met last month during the round-robin at the Mizuno/Nittany Lion Invitational. Penn State posted a .514 hitting percentage and swept the Raiders, 17-15, 15-10, 15-9. Right-side hitter Guillo Silva led the Lions with 25 kills and a .611 hitting percentage.

Rutgers-Newark, however, was still in the process of working out the kinks in its lineup at that point.

"They're much improved," senior middle blocker Todd Shirley said. "At the Mizuno, they didn't put on their starting six. They were working at getting a lot of guys a lot of playing time. So, we're looking for a really good match."

The Raiders won their host tournament -- the Golden Dome Classic -- two weekends ago by defeating No. 12 Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne in the finals. IPFW had come back from two games down to defeat Penn State in the semifinals.

Shirley thinks the Lions may be able to run the middle on Rutgers-Newark. Penn State has improved greatly at middle blocker over the last few games, as Shirley, Kevin Mosbacher, Winfield Evens and Tito Nunez have started to contribute more offensively. Nunez led the Lions with 14 kills against Navy.

"When we played them earlier in the season, they weren't having a lot of success blocking with us," Shirley said. "They were jumping on us in the middle, and we were getting a lot of single blocks. If we can pass well and run a quick offense they're going to have a lot of trouble stopping us."

Notes: In the latest statistical rankings released by the NCAA, Silva is second in kills per game (6.58). Charlie Bertran is fourth in digs per game (2.66), 10th in hitting percentage (.382) and 10th in kills per game (4.88). Jorge Perez is ninth in digs per game (2.42) and John Wasielewski is sixth in service aces per game (.462).