At the midpoint of the season, the No. 8 Penn State men's volleyball team (11-6, 8-0 EIVA) finds itself on unfamiliar and uncharacteristically shaky ground.

Losers of two straight to the hands of No. 1 UC Irvine (19-3) and No. 12 USC (10-12), the Nittany Lions got a reality check that the West Coast heavyweights still wear the championship belt in men's volleyball.

The Lions will get back to their familiar stomping grounds at 7 tomorrow night though, when they'll travel to NYU (8-12, 0-8 EIVA) for the team's second meeting of the season.

And for the Lions, "stomping grounds" is usually equivalent with stomping on weaker opponents. The Violets will be no exception.

"We've done pretty well when we've went in there, and it's NYU to be honest with you," senior co-captain Matt Proper said jokingly. "They're getting better, but as long as we do everything we're capable of, we should take care of business."

Taking care of business shouldn't be a problem. The team's last meeting ended in a 3-0 sweep in favor of Penn State. The Lions hit .370 as a team in that match, while holding the Violets to a laughable .000 clip.

Still, at this point of the season, fatigue and the wearing down of bodies need to be taken into consideration. Even do-everything hitter Proper is suffering from some shoulder soreness.

Worst of all, starting setter Dan O'Dell will be sidelined for at least two weeks with a knee injury. Sophomore Luke Murray, who has seen some starters minutes earlier in the season, will be asked to navigate the Lions' offense in the team's next few matches.

"Luke is more than capable," head coach Mark Pavlik said. "We just become a little bit of a different team with Luke in there."

For the Violets to have any prayer of an upset, or to even take a game from the Lions, they'll rely heavily on Macnair Sillick's offensive production. He leads the team with 3.60 kills a game.

On the defensive side, Chris Schmidt averages 1.12 blocks a game and David Tener leads the team in digs with 2.05.

One thing that the team learned from their West Coast trip is that defense may be the team's best offense. That holds especially true with the team's digging.

"We have to dig some balls against teams that can bring heat," Pavlik said. "We can't just rely on our block to stuff every ball, we have to come up with some digs."

In tight matches, decided by three or four points, those extra digs can be crucial.

"If we can come up with two or three more digs a game where we get the opportunity to convert, where we control it, get a good set, and get a good swing, there's two points that we get vs. two points that they don't get," Pavlik said.

The problem for the Lions is that they don't get that same heat from EIVA competition. While the West Coast teams are battling each other, and playing slug-it-out volleyball match in and match out, Penn State is pummeling teams that have virtually no chance of physically hanging with them.

"You only get better by playing with better people," senior co-captain Nate Meerstein said. "That's why in this practice gym we have to get better and make our biggest strides and when we are in the games make sure we take care of business."