Chalk up one more tournament championship for the men's volleyball team.

The No. 3 Lions traveled to the 15th Golden Dome Classic in Newark, N.J., and came away with their fourth consecutive tournament win of the year. By defeating Cal-Berkeley (the nation's top club team) and host Rutgers-Newark, the Lions improved their season record to 9-1.

Beacuse the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association was realigned into two different divisions prior to the start of the season, Penn State lost one of its longest rivalries in Rutgers-Newark. The rivalry, dating back to 1977, was dominated by the Lions, who are now 46-21-1 against the Raiders (4-3, 3-1 EIVA).

This Golden Cup Classic marked the only scheduled regular season meeting between the two. However, the odds are that the Lions will battle the Raiders again in late April at the EIVA Tournament.

In Saturday's championship match, the Lions started out on fire, but midway through game three began to struggle and lose their momentum. Luckily, the team recaptured its spark just in time to come away with its third Golden Dome win.

"Everything was just clicking," freshman outside hitter Jason Kepner said. "Passing, blocking, hitting -- it was just all-around good play."

The Lions started as hot as any team can start, shutting out the Raiders 15-0 in game one. The team kept that momentum through game two (15-5) but began to slack off and dropped game three 15-8.

"We started real aggressive and everything came up right for us," said freshman outside hitter Ivan Contreras. "We kept that momentum through game two. In the third game, we just shut down and didn't try hard -- we gave up like five points in a row."

But some of the Lions didn't think the team played up to its full potential. Citing poor communication and sloppy passing, the Lions saw the momentum shift to the hometown Raiders and the match almost slipped away.

"Winning is nice, but wins and losses aren't always the most important things. We just want to play as well as we can and hopefully come out with some wins," said sophomore middle blocker Kevin Hourican earlier in the season.

In game three, the Lions had only a .053 hitting efficiency (15 kills and 13 errors). This, along with the Raiders .344 hitting efficiency, allowed for a huge momentum shift to the home team. The Lions rallied and fought back from a 14-13 deficit in game four to take control, winning 16-14.

"They are not used to a team with such strong blocking," Contreras said. "Behind our blocking, we just kept siding out and we won."

Senior outside hitter Ramon Hernandez added another tournament MVP award to his extensive collection. With 23 kills in the championship, Hernandez provided the fire that kept the team hot and in control. Sophomore setter Carlos Ortiz led the team with 18 digs and four of the team's 13 blocks.

In their first-round match, the Lions swept past Cal-Berkeley, a four-time national collegiate club champion, 15-10, 15-7, 15-6. Because the Golden Bears are club status, the match did not count towards the Lions' record.