When the No. 6 Penn State men's volleyball team takes to the court for its two matches this weekend, it will do so with the EIVA regular season crown on it's mind, as Penn State's magic number now stands at two.

With wins over Princeton tonight at 7 in the south gym, and tomorrow night at Saint Francis, the Nittany Lions (15-5, EIVA 8-0) will clinch the top seed in this year's EIVA tournament -- allowing them to play host to the field in late April.

"I'd like to take care of it this weekend from more of a logistical standpoint of letting everybody here plan it, but I think we've got to be favored to win," coach Mark Pavlik said. "I think the guys are ready to wrap it up. Let's get on to business."

Two similar teams stand in the Lions' way: Princeton and St. Francis.

With three losses apiece, both of those teams remain in the hunt for the No. 1 seed in the EIVA tournament. Penn State could see some of the same desperation they faced from Rutgers-Newark last weekend before the Lions ensured that the Scarlet Raiders would be relegated to the EIVA's lower division.

On the court, both Princeton and Saint Francis boast strong middle hitting, most notably being Saint Francis' standout Marc Honore.

"Against Saint Francis, there's no secret, you have to limit the number of swings Marc Honore can take," Pavlik said. "He's going to convert anywhere from 60 to 75 percent of his swings. Luckily he's only in on three rotations.

"The three rotations that he's not in the game, we have to make sure we serve the ball and make them score points and work hard to score points. We can't let them off the hook in their six, one and two rotations, where he's not in there."

With the biggest challenges against both squads standing in the middle, Pavlik expects to exploit Penn State's advantage on the outside with outside hitters Matt Anderson and Alex Gutor.

"I think Matty Anderson the last time we played Princeton really came on at the end of that match," Pavlik said. "It was kind of a precursor of what was to come the next month. It was kind of a launching point for the next couple weeks. So I think that's going to continue."

However, the Lions' win over Juniata on Wednesday marked the first full match for setter Luke Murray since he sprained his ankle in the March 14 loss to the University of California at Irvine, and his missed time was apparent.

"I thought that we were so dominant in the middle that sometimes when you have one part of your offense that is so dominant, a setter tends to get careless," Pavlik said. "In other words they say, 'It's 17-14, we got a three-point lead. Everyone knows this ball is going to the middle. I'm going to do something else.' We get stuffed. It's not a great set.

"There were some instances where, we were a little bit rusty. A little bit with Luke, especially with our back-row attack man Alex."

As for Murray's lack of a comfort level, Pavlik points to the team's current stretch -- 11 matches in 23 days -- and the lack of practice time available to it.

"We might have to struggle through a little bit tomorrow and Saturday with it," Pavlik said, "but we get back in the gym that week before East Stroudsburg is here, we'll sharpen that up."