Following the No. 7 Penn State men's volleyball team's win on senior night on April 6, senior captain Alex Gutor talked about the night's festivities and how he wasn't looking at that match as his last home match.

He said he was "looking more into May than April 6."

Gutor, along with fellow senior captains Aaron Smith and Ryan Walthall, knew April 6 was only the last of his regular season home matches. He already knew Penn State was going to host the EIVA tournament.

That was what the seniors were looking at almost a full month ago.

The EIVA championship match came Saturday night, and with it came the Lions ninth consecutive EIVA title and the final chapter of the three seniors' Rec Hall careers.

The Nittany Lions (22-7, 14-0 EIVA) won the EIVA crown by defeating second seeded St. Francis 3-0 (30-28, 30-16, 30-27), and even though the match was played in Rec Hall, the win was in front of a hostile crowd consisting of numerous St. Francis fans.

With as many supporters as the Red Flash had in attendance, it still wasn't enough. For the second year in a row, St. Francis and its seemingly inhuman star, middle hitter Marc Honore, fell to Penn State in the EIVA championship match.

Honore entered the tournament averaging 2.07 blocks per game and 4.51 kills per game on .521 hitting.

He had recently been named the EIVA's player of the year. Only on this night, Honore was human.

"I thought we did as good a job as anyone has done on Honore," Penn State head coach Mark Pavlik said. "We really limited his impact."

Penn State limited the St. Francis star to only 11 kills at a .304 clip over the three games.

He only had five blocks.

"I think we convinced [Max Lipsitz] and [Matt Anderson] that it didn't matter how high Honore got," Pavlik said. "It was how high the ball came across the net.

"I think we did a good job of taking areas away from him."

But perhaps the most telling sign of Penn State's success against Honore, was that six-foot tall setter Luke Murray, en route to earning tournament most outstanding player honors, blocked the six-foot six-inch Honore -- twice.

"I was amazed," Gutor said about Murray's two blocks on Honore. "I thought his shoulders were going to be on the floor because [Honore] swung so hard. Everyone is looking at [Murray] because of his size, but he is a great player."

After being named the tournament's most outstanding player Murray played it down.

"I wasn't really thinking about that," Murray said. "Volleyball is the epitome of a team sport. The passers make me look really good. Sometimes I make them look good. Everybody is relying on everybody else to do their job."

The Lions controlled Honore as a team.

They won the championship as a team.

The kill totals were even close as a balanced Penn State attack had three players with double digit kills as Anderson contributed 15, Gutor had 12 and Max Holt added 11.

Gutor, the senior captain, chose to thank Murray though.

"In the third game, he came out and said, 'balls are coming to you, this is your game,'" Gutor said. "I said, 'without you there is no me.' He was great tonight... I am happy for him. I am happy he is my setter."

Appropriately, though, the win -- and an era -- was closed out with a kill by Gutor.

"I came in realizing that it was an important match," Gutor said. "It was a home match. It was my last match in Rec Hall, and that was my last swing here. Thank you to Luke for the set. I am happy."

With the win Penn State secured a berth into the NCAA Championships to be held in Columbus, Ohio beginning Thursday. The Lions are the third seed.

As the third seed, Penn State next faces second seeded University of California-Irvine.