The phone rang, as it had done many times throughout the day. It's a busy time of year to be the Penn State men's volleyball coach.

Mark Pavlik picked it up, leaned back in his chair and cradled his head in his hands as he spoke to the voice at the other end. It was Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne coach Arnie Ball who called, and the two coaches worked out scheduling for next season.

"I'm just ready for this thing to be over," Pavlik said to the IPFW coach.

Aside from scheduling, teaching classes and proctoring exams, Pavlik has been busy preparing his team for a playoff run. More specifically, he's been getting the No. 11 Nittany Lions ready for the EIVA tournament, which, for them, begins at 7:30 tonight in Rec Hall against Rutgers-Newark.

The Lions' (18-8, 11-1 EIVA) match against the Scarlet Raiders (10-17, 5-6) will be one of two EIVA semifinal matches tonight and will be the teams' third meeting this season.

No. 12 George Mason will take on St. Francis (Pa.) at 5 p.m. in Rec Hall.

Even before the EIVA tournament has begun, Pavlik is ready for it to be over because of the pressure surrounding the Lions.

In the weeks leading up to the postseason, Pavlik and the team have become progressively more stressed out because of the expectations that have grown around them.

"That's the beauty and the curse of being at Penn State -- this is the tournament that we're supposed to win," Pavlik said.

Over the past 20 years, Penn State has gone 49-3 in the EIVA tournament, so naturally the expectations for the team's success this year are high, too.

"Every year we're supposed to be the most dominant team on the East Coast," said senior co-captain Matt Proper, "and it's almost a given that we're supposed to have an easy route to the Final Four. There's almost more pressure here in the EIVA playoffs then whenever we get to the Final Four because the expectations are always so high."

The Lions have defeated the Scarlet Raiders twice already but have lost a game in each contest. And senior co-captain Nate Meerstein doesn't expect the Scarlet Raiders to bow to the Lions.

"They're gonna be scrappy," Meerstein said. "They're gonna make some plays that people might not expect them to make. They always play pretty strong here at the end of the year."

The combination of a solid Rutgers-Newark team and the expectations surrounding the Lions in the EIVAs will apply some added pressure, Meerstein said. But given how the team has been practicing lately, he is feeling pretty confident about tonight's match.

"If we play and compete the way we have in the past two weeks, I'm expecting some dominance," Meerstein said. "We haven't played as hard as we have in these past two weeks than we have all season."