The men's volleyball team knew that its match last night against Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association rival New Jersey Institute of Technology was going to be an easy win.

The Lions are the third-ranked team in the most recent coaches poll. They have swept No. 6 Stanford twice and No. 7 Indiana-Purdue at Fort Wayne once. The team has also defeated three of the top-ranked Canadian teams en route to their high place in the poll.

So Penn State knew that going up against a Division III opponent such as NJIT was not going to be one of its most challenging of the season.

"It's going to be a big thing for us this year when we play the teams that we know we can beat in three to go out and beat them strongly in the first game," senior Byron Schneider said earlier in the season. "Then we can let our new guys get in and get some valuable experience."

And start strongly they did. The Lions starters took control of the match early on, winning the opening game, 15-4. From there, the second-teamers took over, and the Lions put the match in cruise control, winning the last two games 15-7 and 15-4.

Leading the Lions (8-1 overall, 1-0 EIVA) was freshman middle blocker Adam Fernsler, the only Lion to play in all three games. Fernsler silenced the scant NJIT crowd of 150 with his team-leading 12 kills and six of the team's 13 blocks. Senior outside hitter Scott Irwin added eight kills and two blocks, and freshman Jason Kepner had three aces.

The Lions have now won all 11 of their matches against NJIT (9-1, 0-1), dating back to 1977. The team had a .452 hitting efficiency with only 11 hitting errors in last night's match, as they held the Highlanders to a .143 kill percentage.

Today, the Lions will take on the University of California-Berkeley in their first-round match of the 15th Golden Dome Classic. Because the Golden Bears are a club team, the match will not count towards the Lions' record.

The team have will be searching for its third Golden Dome championship, trying to add to its first-place finishes in 1987 and 1991. The team has made nine appearances in the 15-year history of the New Jersey tournament.

The Lions have won the last three tournaments that they have participated in. From the Mizuno Nittany Lion Invitational, to the Hall of Fame Classic, to an exhibition tournament in Canada, the Lions have yet to finish anywhere lower that first.

The tournament's consolation match will be held tomorrow at 6 p.m., with the championship to follow. Also participating in the tournament are EIVA rivals Harvard and host Rutgers-Newark (3-2, 2-0 EIVA).