Winning three consecutive championships at any level is tough, but winning four puts you in elite company.

The No. 2 Penn State women's club volleyball team travels to the Sonny Werblin Rec Center at Rutgers University tomorrow for the Northeast Women's Volleyball Club League championship.

If they win, it will be four in a row for the Nittany Lions.

Although few teams have competed on Penn State's level this year, the women are certainly not letting down their guard.

Middle blocker Leslie Slowikowski said the teams in the league aren't the kind of powerhouses found in the Midwest and West.

"We're not going to play down to their level though," Slowikowski said.

"That wouldn't be a challenge for us." At Rutgers there will be four four-team pools.

Penn State, the No. 1 team in the league, will be playing in Pool D along with Delaware, Colgate and Syracuse.

Penn State defeated Delaware at an earlier tournament this year but has not seen Colgate or Syracuse.

Pool play will be two games played to 25 points against each team in the pool. The top two teams from each pool will move to single-elimination Gold Bracket playoffs.

The bottom two teams will move on to single-elimination Silver Bracket playoffs.

Penn State came out on top last year and Slowikowski said it's basically the same team, with one major exception.

"Our main improvement from last year is our ability to come back when we're down," outside hitter Tara Caresani said.

"We get down, and then we get back up again," Slowikowski said.

"We don't get angry."

Another strength for this year's team is blocking.

"We're a real tall team," middle blocker Lisa Harrison said. "Cross-net, we're a good threat."

Libero Vanessa Behl said recent practices have been more intense, but adds that the work ethic has not changed.

The players have been devoting a lot of time to conditioning, strength training and several drills.

Both Behl and Harrison said passing was an area that needed improvement before this weekend.

The players said they have been working intensively on serve-and-receive drills.

If Penn State wins tomorrow, it will have a good chance of going into nationals as the No. 1 team.