Remember that bully in grade school that took everyone's lunch money, but no one could do anything about it?

Well, teams in the EIVA must feel like each one of their conference matches against the Penn State men's volleyball team (10-4, 7-0 EIVA) is just like handing over their precious pocket change to an unforgiving brute. Only instead of lunch money, they're giving them conference wins.

Juniata (6-7, 2-5 EIVA) was the latest victim of the Lions larceny, getting swept on its home floor 3-0 [30-23, 30-28, 30-22].

The team had to do a little more than just physically impose its will on the Golden Eagle's though.

Juniata's volleyball court is relatively small, boxed in a tiny gymnasium that also serves as the team's basketball court. This was a definite adjustment for the Lions as the limited space led to an uncharacteristically high nine service errors in game 1 of the match.

"We didn't serve well. Part of that is this gym is set up in such a tight corner," head coach Mark Pavlik said. "I don't know if we've ever served completely great in this gym."

Even though the Lion's serves may not have been the most accurate, the Golden Eagles kill attempts were considerably worse.

They found more of the Penn State blocker's arms than the gymnasium floor. This led the team to hit a paltry .202 hitting percentage.

"Offensively we did pretty good with our block," Pavlik said. "It was a good match in the middle."

It was an especially good match for co-captain Nate Meerstein. The senior registered five of Penn State's eight total blocks, and hit at a .467 clip.

The Lions didn't have the same emotion out of the gate as they've had in recent matches. Part of that could be due to playing on the road, and away from their beloved Rec Hall.

"I think that the energy we brought to the court in past matches, eluded us tonight at times," Pavlik said. "Still, I don't think there was ever any doubt that we were going to win the match."

Nevertheless, one freshman had no trouble finding the energy to pound on the Golden Eagles.

If middle hitter Max Holt could play Juniata every match this season, he'd be a lock for national player of the year. He had 12 kills on 13 swings for a .846 hitting percentage last night.

Compare that with the last time the two teams met when he had 10 kills on 11 swings for a .909 clip, and you could see that the Golden Eagles might have nightmares about the freshman's dominance for weeks.

The Lions won't get long to celebrate their thrashing of Juniata. They will have three matches while the rest of Happy Valley celebrates Spring Break, including EIVA foe Princeton (9-11, 2-3 EIVA) coming to Rec Hall on Friday night at 7.

The team will then embark on a west-coast trip to No. 2 UC Irvine (14-3), a team that has been bullying competition all season long.

They'll next get a rematch of their preseason battle against No. 14 USC (8-9).

If Penn State can pull off the sweep, just about every team in the nation may want to start thinking about dropping off their lunch money before the new bully on the playground physically takes it from them.