In terms of the future, these games are more than just conference games. They're must-wins if the Nittany Lions hope to secure home-court advantage during the EIVA championships.
"We have to make sure we take care of our matches against them here on our home court," Pavlik said. "It's as good as an EIVA weekend as we can get."
For Penn State to sweep the weekend and push its consecutive win streak to eight, one aspect of its game will have to especially be sharp.
"Consistency," senior co-captain Nate Meerstein explained. "We've been pretty good limiting our errors and, if we do that, we'll have no problem."
The Lions have had virtually no problem with EIVA competition for the last decade. They've lost just three conference games since Pavlik started coaching in 1995.
You'd think that type of dominance would make the team come in overly confident, but that's not the case.
"They come in here fired up," senior co-captain Matt Proper said of his opponents. "They're always gunning for us and always giving us their best. They're going to come up ready to play and we just have to meet their intensity."
George Mason will rely on outside hitters Shaun Powell and Hudson Bates. The pair of outside hitters are first and second on the team in kills with 5.26 and 3.52 per game, respectively. Powell even ranks fifth in the nation in kills.
Senior middle hitter Matt Steinfurth is coming off a week where he was named EIVA Division I-II player of the week. He leads the nation in blocks with 1.98 per game.
George Mason's stars haven't gone unnoticed by the Penn State coaching staff, either.
"Powell is kind of their go-to guy. We know he's coming in as a pretty good hitter," Pavlik said. "Hudson Bates is a pretty physical kid, and Steinfurth in the middle is as good a middle as anyone in the EIVA."
Those are pretty strong accolades but the Lions sure don't have slouches in their key positions.
Meerstein leads the nation in hitting percentage at .528. Proper averages 4.08 kills per game, and freshmen Max Holt and Matt Anderson seem to get better every match.
As far as Rutgers-Newark goes, it doesn't have quite the talent as George Mason, but still shouldn't be taken lightly.
The Scarlet Raiders have a pair of Honsbergers that can't be ignored. Middle hitter Brian Honsberger leads the team in blocks with 1.19, and outside hitter Eric Honsberger leads the team in kills with 3.33.
The plan for the Lions, though, is simple: get in, get up and get out.
"If we can come in and play solid volleyball, we'll shut them down early and shut them up early," Meerstein said.
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