The Penn State men's volleyball team travels to Hawaii for the seventh annual Outrigger Hotels Invitational. Competing along with the Nittany Lions (1-0) in the tournament will be UCLA, Hawaii, and Laval.

The teams they will be facing will be sure to provide stiff competition for Penn State as UCLA (2-2) is the defending national champion and defeated Penn State twice last year, including the match that ended Penn State's NCAA Championship run.

Hawaii (2-0) finished last year ranked eighth in the country and also defeated the Lions last year in this same tournament. The other team in the tournament is from Canada. Laval is undefeated this year at 6-0 and is ranked second in Canada by the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union.

A major factor in this trip will be the duration of the flight and the question of whether Penn State can maintain the stamina and focus to play well for three straight days.

"There is no denying that it (jetlag) does affect teams," said Coach Mark Pavlik. "Our feeling is that this group is experienced in getting out there. We have been making this trip for six or seven years. This trip is three days of tough matches, three days of knowing what you have to do to be successful."

The Lions should not have a lack of motivation against either UCLA or Hawaii as both finished last year ranked in the top 10 and have hurt Penn State in the past. The Lions will look to use this early season test as experience to help them throughout the season.

"Yeah I think the bottom line is we have an opportunity to play against UCLA," said senior Steve Aird. "We have always had kind of a distaste in our mouth towards them. They are always one of the best teams in the country and they ended our season last year. This is what you play for and practice harder for when you get the opportunity to play these teams."

Another factor has to be whether the team can focus on the matches at hand and not the aspect that they are going to Hawaii. Playing in such a glamorous place could be a distraction for a relatively young team, including one freshman, starter libero Ricky Mattei.

"Yeah, I believe right now we got a good start beating Ohio State, a top ranked team last year," said Mattei. "I know we lost some starters but we have to take care of business against Hawaii and UCLA."

Penn State kicks off action in the invitational at 7 p.m. tonight against the Hawaii Warriors.