If the Penn State men's volleyball team were to stub its toe in EIVA play, last weekend would've been a great place to do it.

Coming into Rec Hall was a red hot George Mason team that had rattled off six wins. The No. 14 Patriots were 13-2 and were sitting at second in the EIVA. Leading the way for them was the nation's top blocker, Matt Steinfurth, and an extremely athletic outside hitter in Shaun Powell, who ranked fifth nationally in kills. The No. 9 Nittany Lions suffered a one-game letdown the night before to Rutgers-Newark and looked ripe for an upset in their own gym.

My attempted forecasting regarding Saturday's match turned out to be horribly incorrect, but I firmly stand behind this next prediction: The Lions will not lose an EIVA match for the rest of the season.

Penn State came out and punished George Mason, 3-0, winning each game handily and played well enough to fully convince me that there is not a shot of them losing an EIVA match.

That wouldn't be wholly uncharacteristic, though.

In fact, since current Penn State men's volleyball coach Mark Pavlik took the helm in 1995, the Lions have lost only three conference matches. In that span of 11 years, they've won 10 EIVA titles and only lost one match in EIVA tournament play. Pavlik has won ECVL/EIVA Coach of the Year honors five times in that span.

The Lions play Juniata away tomorrow night, but they've already seen the Eagles in a 3-1 victory on Feb. 3. The one game they dropped to Juniata was an aberration in the Lions' play all match long and was a result of poor passing, which has since picked up considerably at the sure hands of libero Aaron Smith and outside hitter Matt Anderson.

Also, Juniata has dropped two of its last three matches -- once in a 3-0 loss to a Saint Francis team that Penn State handled, and once in a 3-1 loss to George Mason.

After Juniata, the EIVA schedule gets even easier for Penn State.

The team gets Princeton at home on March 3, before traveling to NYU -- a team it beat 3-0 already -- on March 18.

The team then takes a road trip to George Mason and Rutgers-Newark on March 25 and 31, respectively, before finishing the EIVA regular season at Princeton on April 1.

George Mason was the EIVA's only real hope and Penn State sent it back to Fairfax, Va., with a bitter taste of second place lingering on its taste buds.

The Patriots should get used to it, though -- it looks like second will be their flavor of the year for them.

A clean-sweep of the EIVA regular season will guarantee that Rec Hall is the site of the EIVA tournament.

Penn State has lost only one match at home the season, which was before the Lions caught their stride. Since that time they've gone unbeaten in Happy Valley, even upsetting then-No. 3 Long Beach State.

Another unblemished EIVA season looks inevitable and will assure Penn State a spot in the NCAA Final Four.

This year, the NCAAs come to University Park, which bodes well for the Lions.

I'm not ready to make a decision regarding their fate once the bullies from the West Coast fly in, but Penn State is certainly the best the East has to offer.