The men's volleyball team further established itself as the team to beat in the East with a victory at the Golden Dome Classic at Rutgers-Newark on Saturday.

The No. 5 Lions (19-4) defeated the host Raiders 15-10, 15-12, 15-13, to win the tournament for the first time since 1987. Penn State beat No. 13 Ball State 16-14, 15-12, 9-15, 17-15 in the semifinals.

Senior outside hitter Jorge Perez and senior setter Scott Miller were named to the all-tournament team.

"Its a nice feeling," assistant coach Mark Pavlik said. "We never really played well in the Golden Dome (in the past)."

The Lions defeated Ball State for the third time this season, and each time it has taken four games.

"They showed streaks of playing real well," Pavlik said of the Cardinals. "We would go up by scores of 8-4 and then be tied at 8-8."

Pavlik added that the Lions ran a predictable offense, which was one of the reasons why they struggled.

No. 16 Rutgers-Newark defeated No. 19 Princeton in the other semifinal to earn the right to take on the Lions for the title.

"We had seen them play versus Princeton and we knew that they were a good team," Pavlik said.

In the match with the Raiders, the Lions spread out their offense more evenly than in the Ball State match, he added. The key to that was Miller, who distributed the sets uniformly.

"If a hitter is not getting a set with any type of regularity . . . he is going to be cold," Pavlik said. "Scott did a real nice job of keeping all of the hitters ready."

Miller had 10 digs in the Ball State match and Perez had 14 kills. Senior outside hitter Charlie Bertran had 17 kills, 10 digs and 3 blocks for Penn State.

Pavlik added that the Lions' defense, which deteriorated on their recent West Coast trip, was a key in the Rutgers-Newark match. On match point, 6'5" outside hitter Jeff Wentworth's hit went unblocked, but Perez managed to dig the ball, sophomore middle blocker David Muir set it, and Perez put it away to win the match.

"We played real good defense (Saturday)," Pavlik said.

The Lions will continue to sharpen their skills this week in preparation for Saturday's match against George Mason in Rec Hall.

"Its real nice to see the guys focused mentally and put everything together and just win this thing," Pavlik said. "Right now the guys have reached a point where they have earned a day off."