Matches that would normally be no more than blips on the Penn State men's volleyball radar have now become imminently important.

Because the No. 9 Nittany Lions (13-7, 9-1 EIVA) lost to No. 15 George Mason on Saturday -- their first loss to an EIVA team in two years -- they must win both of this weekend's matches to secure home-court advantage through the EIVA playoffs.

Ironically, the loss two years ago came in New Jersey against Rutgers-Newark, and the Lions will face the Scarlet Raiders (9-14, 5-4) at 7 tonight as well. Continuing their Garden State road trip, the Lions travel to Princeton (4-10, 3-6) for a match at 4 p.m. tomorrow. The two matches are the Penn State's last EIVA regular-season matches.

With two wins, the Lions will take the regular-season conference title because they hold the tiebreaker over George Mason. It took Penn State only three games to beat George Mason, while the Patriots needed four games to beat Penn State.

"[This is] as important as it gets," Penn State men's volleyball coach Mark Pavlik said. "We can't just go to Rutgers thinking we're going to show up, we gotta be ready for their best effort. We gotta be ready for Princeton's best effort on Saturday."

The Lions have dropped three of their last five matches and will be looking for senior captains Matt Proper and Nate Meerstein to lead this weekend. Proper and Meerstein have paced the team not only statistically this season, but emotionally. Proper, an outside hitter, is leading the team in kills (274) and is hitting .385. Middle hitter Meerstein is hitting second highest on the team (.491) on 188 kills.

Proper led the Lions during their 3-1 win in their first outing against Rutgers-Newark, when the Scarlet Raiders came to Happy Valley on Feb. 24. He finished with a match-high 14 kills at a .500 clip, adding five digs and an ace.

When Princeton came to Rec Hall on March 3, Meerstein guided Penn State to a 3-0 victory, with seven kills on .875 hitting, while chipping in six blocks.

This time, though, the stakes are slightly higher for the Lions, and Proper and Meerstein aren't the only players who know it.

"Obviously the loss, it puts a little more pressure on us to win," junior outside hitter Alex Gutor said. "We improved on things we learned from the loss this last weekend. I think we're confident, but we're more concerned with ourselves then who's on the other side."

Across the net tonight, Rutgers-Newark will rely on a tandem of brothers, Eric and Brian Honsberger, who are tops on the team. Junior outside hitter Eric has notched 305 kills this season and senior middle hitter Brian has notched 249 kills this season. They rank first and second on the team in kills, respectively. Sophomore outside hitter Peter Eichler leads Princeton with 178 kills at a .230 clip.

"It's going to be a big weekend for us," Pavlik said.