With the regular season EIVA crown already in hand, to the No. 6 Penn State men's volleyball team, this weekend is about character, pride -- and for three Nittany Lions -- recognition.

This weekend, the Lions (17-6, 10-0 EIVA) will play their final two regular season EIVA matches.

The team will celebrate Senior Night when it plays East Stroudsburg at 7 tonight in
Rec Hall. Tomorrow it will close out the EIVA regular season on the
road against George Mason, also at 7 p.m.

"Every Senior Night, as I hand them the blanket, it's just real hard for me to realize that four years have gone past," Penn State head coach Mark Pavlik said. "[Ryan] Walthall, [Aaron Smith] and Alex [Gutor], they've been here for four years."

Thinking of his three senior
captains, Pavlik couldn't help but smile.

He remembered seeing Gutor play club volleyball as high school senior. He described him as "a skinny kid with a great arm." He remembered Smith, who traveled from his home near Richmond, Va., to George Mason, to watch the Lions play after he committed to Penn State. He remembered Walthall, who recruited himself to the Penn State squad.

"This group, these three, probably went through more ups and downs in their athletic career, than maybe any other group of seniors," Pavlik said. "But through it all, they really maintained their true personality and their devotion to the team. These guys kept pushing. And they did it the right way. Whatever you asked of them, even if they disagreed with it, you knew that they were going to do what you asked them to do."

As for the matches, with the aforementioned regular season conference title already clinched, Pavlik said the fear of a letdown exists, but he thinks that the team's character -- which permeates from the three seniors -- will come through.

"The motivation is probably to keep that zero in the [EIVA] loss column for us," Pavlik said. "If we can do that, I think the guys are looking at that as, 'We'd much rather finish 12-0 than 11-1 or 10-2, regardless of where the semis and finals are going to be held. That's the future. We're not worried about that. We'll worry about getting better as a team.' "

Smith admitted he didn't know what to expect from this year's team at the beginning of the year, but given what he's seen this year, he's not quite ready to leave.

"Now that the team has gelled and we're playing really good, I don't want it to end," Smith said. "I'd love to come back another year and do it all over again."