The No. 12 Penn State men's volleyball team is one win from Long Beach.

The Nittany Lions pummeled Rutgers-Newark 3-0 (30-16, 30-26, 30-20) to reach the EIVA final at 7:30 tomorrow night in Rec Hall. The winner of that match will play in the NCAA Championships in Long Beach.

The Lions asserted themselves immediately in the semifinal match-up against the Scarlet Raiders. The Lions came out fast in game one and opened up a 15-6 lead at the technical timeout.

Sophomore Zeljko Koljesar would have six of his match-high 19 kills in game one where the Lions would out-hit Rutgers-Newark .630 to -.071 in winning the opening game 30-16.

"It just comes natural. I ask for the ball and he (Jose) gives it to me," Koljesar said. "He knows I will call for it more often when I'm on and he likes that so it works out."

The Scarlet Raiders were able to keep the second game close, as they would trail by just two at the technical timeout. Rutgers-Newark would cut it to one at 21-20 on a kill by junior Jeremy Hoff, but the Lions would score five of the next seven points to put the game out of reach and win, 30-26.

"We blocked and played well defensively," Penn State men's volleyball coach Mark Pavlik said. "I liked what we did in transition, I think we asserted our physical dominance."

Once again in game three the Lions would distance themselves from Rutgers-Newark by the technical timeout with a lead of 15-8.

Koljesar would post nine kills in game three with eight of them coming after his poorest hit of the night that soared out of bounds. The hit drew a chuckle from the Lions' bench, but Koljesar would be the last one laughing, scoring four of the Lions' next five points.

"All the setters I've played with usually give it (the ball) back after a bad miss," Koljesar said. "I missed two balls that game, but I was having fun. Even when I missed that ball I felt comfortable."

The Lions had big performances turned in by sophomores Carlos Guerra and Zach Slenker. Guerra had 14 kills, two aces and hit .591 on the evening. Slenker hit a perfect 1.000 on eight kills and also had two aces.

The Lions dominated almost every statistical category for the match. They out-hit the Scarlet Raiders .506 to .103 and out-blocked them 11.5 to five.

The Lions had 26 digs on the evening led by freshman libero Ricky Mattei's nine digs. The Lions offense was facilitated through junior Jose Quinones' 46 assists.

The Lions continued to struggle with their service game, committing 19 service errors to just four aces. Midway through game two a few Lions switched up their style of serve going to a more conservative approach.

"They are not a team that's going to overpower you," Quinones said. "I just wanted to get it in play and let blocking, digging, and attack in transition get you some points."

The Lions will meet Concordia in the EIVA final, as the Clippers came back from being down two games to none in the first game of the evening against George Mason to win the match 3-2 (18-30, 24-30, 30-25, 30-24, 16-14).

Concordia was led by sophomore outside hitter Ashraf Taman, who had a match-high 21 kills.

"I think we are awake now," Guerra said. "Now we have a really big match on Saturday, they are going to hit harder and not back down from us."