Carlos Guerra returned to the lineup this weekend and Penn State didn't miss a beat as it stretched its winning streak to five matches.

The Nittany Lions (6-2, 4-0 EIVA Tait) duplicated what they did last weekend as they swept two more teams.

The match on Friday against Rutgers-Newark (30-28, 30-23, 30-28) was much closer than expected, but the Scarlet Raiders (1-9, 1-2 EIVA Tait) could not win the points when they needed them.

Guerra showed no signs of injury in game one, where he had six kills — including the game winner — to help the Lions stave off the attack from Rutgers-Newark. Guerra would finish the match leading all hitters with 17 kills and six digs.

"My shoulder didn't bother me," Guerra said. "But I'm not at 100 percent yet. I need more reps with Jose."

The Lions would lead the entire way in game two. Game two turned out to be the only game of the match where the Lions would outhit the Scarlet Raiders. The Lions hit .429 compared to just .222 for Rutgers-Newark.

The last game of the match, junior setter Jose Quinones did not play as freshman Nate Matthews took over the role of setter.

Guerra and sophomore Zeljko Koljesar were the lone starters left out on the court and between them saw almost every set. Guerra dominated the game with nine kills and Koljesar had seven. Koljesar had 15 kills for the match to go along with five digs and four aces.

"It pretty much comes down to coach telling me that I'm floor captain," Koljesar said. "I looked up at Carlos then and he said we have to pick up our game."

The match was a sweep, but it was as close as a sweep can be. This is due large in part to the hitting of junior middle hitter Jeremy Desiron and junior outside hitter Danko Iordanov. Desiron had 11 kills for the match, but more impressively did it on 12 swings for a .917 hitting percentage. Iordanov led the Scarlet Raiders with 16 kills.

"Jeremy (Desiron) did a real nice job against John (Mills)," Penn State coach Mark Pavlik said. "Iordanov was able to hit under our blocks all night."

The Lions victory over New Jersey Institute of Technology (30-20, 30-18, 30-23) was a dominate performance as NJIT (2-5, 1-3 EIVA Tait) only led one point throughout the first two games.

The match was an all-around effort by the team as no player played more than two full games.

Seven service errors committed by the Lions didn't deter them, as they hit .621 for game one with just one error, winning it 30-20.

Game two was the last game for many starters, and the first game for freshman middle hitter Norman Keil.

Keil sparked the team in game two to a 30-18 victory with four kills, hitting .833 for the match and finishing with five kills, two aces and three blocks. Keil's lone mistakes came on serve as he finished the match with three service errors.

"I wasn't really nervous at all," Keil said. "I'm just a little upset at myself that I had those service errors in the last game."

Quinones did not play and freshman Matthews led the attack with 12 assists in game three. An excited squad propelled the Lions to a 30-23 victory.

"I wasn't quite where I wanted to be," Quinones said. "I felt better, though, than yesterday with my touching of the ball."

Mills led the team against NJIT with nine kills, while Guerra added eight kills and five digs. The Lions outhit the Highlanders .463-.134 for the match.

"This was closer to the execution level I expect," Pavlik said. "It was better than last night, but still not as good as I hoped."

The Lions will have a week to work on their execution, as their next match isn't until Feb. 17 at Springfield.