In fact, it'll win the conference championship as well.

Furthermore, the Nittany Lions will then travel to the NCAA Final Four at UCLA.

But they'll lose.

And I challenge them to prove me wrong.

All semester I have been called a homer by my peers for my insistence that Penn State was a great team. But last Saturday was the final straw -- I'm off the bandwagon.

Penn State is not a great volleyball team. It is average, at best.

The team has no real go-to guy on the team. The Lions have a solid supporting cast that feeds off middle blocker Sergio Pampena's intensity. But due to the lack of competition in its conference, Penn State does not stand a chance against West Coast powerhouses like UCLA, Long Beach State or BYU.

Yes, I know Penn State plays one of the hardest out-of-conference schedules. But it has lost almost every match it has played against those schools.

The fact of the matter is that Penn State has yet to prove it can come up big when it needs to.

Penn State (15-11) has had its share of ups and downs throughout the season. First, it started the season off 0-7 -- losing to highly ranked teams like No. 5 UCLA, No. 3 Pepperdine, No. 4 Ohio State, No. 7 Hawaii and No. 8 Lewis.

The Lions have since won 15 of their last 19 matches, which is pretty good. But not good enough to be considered a top team.

Penn State plays in probably one of the weakest conferences in the country. The EIVA is filled with teams like Vassar, New Jersey Tech and, worst of all, American University of Puerto Rico -- each of which Penn State has spanked in three games.

AUPR was the worst of them all. It had its starting basketball team playing for its regular starters. The reason its regular starters were not playing was because the entire squad was in more academic trouble than Clem Haskins' Minnesota Golden Gophers basketball squad.

Match in and match out, Penn State has played divisional powers like Rutgers-Newark and Juniata. And it has stomped on them.

Watching Penn State play these conference teams is as predictable as watching the World Wrestling Federation. The fans that support the Lions already know what to expect before the match.

It's Penn State in a snoozer.

Last Friday, when Penn State played host to New Jersey Tech, I overheard a fan say to someone before the match, "How long will this match take?" Being the modest individual that I am, I thought to myself, "About an hour and 10 minutes."

Turns out, I was about 15 minutes off.

But last Saturday night summed up the season and my exact point. Penn State played host to No. 8 Lewis in a matchup the Lions had anticipated since losing to Lewis in four games earlier this year in Hawaii.

After Penn State dropped the match in four games, Lewis outside hitter Educardo Quinones, brother of Penn State setter Jose Quinones, said Penn State would make it to the NCAA Final Four.

"They are a good team who knows how to move the ball to the middle," he said. "Teams should show Penn State respect."

Penn State coach Mark Pavlik, however, said his team played sloppy and was not getting the job done.

"We saw where we are tonight, and we have a month to get where we need to be," Pavlik said. "We have played like this against other teams in the conference and won, but when you play against a team of this caliber, they will take advantage of the mistakes and beat you."

Message to Penn State fans -- your team cannot hang with teams like Lewis, Pepperdine or Long Beach State. The Lions may be the giants in the EIVA, but they seem more like mice when matched against the powerhouses of men's volleyball.