The No. 6 Penn State men's volleyball team bus hit a deer outside of Columbus, Ohio, Monday.

The team will look to avoid being the proverbial "deer in the headlights" when it takes on No. 2 University of California-Irvine at 7 tonight in the national semifinal match in Columbus.

In a rematch of last year's national semifinal when the then-fourth seeded Nittany Lions upset the then-first seeded Anteaters, the Lions will look to repeat history -- and make some while they're at it.

If the Lions (22-7) advance to their second-consecutive national championship match, not only will they have taken the same path to get there as last year, but they will have done so for only for the second time in program history. Considering that this will be Penn State's 21st Final Four appearance, that says a lot.

However, senior Alex Gutor isn't looking at that -- or the legacy he'll be leaving behind.

"I take [the matches] one at a time, because it is a sport and anything can happen," Gutor said.

Beyond last year's NCAA matchup, these two teams have faced each other a total of five times during the last 18 months -- including a loss to the Anteaters earlier this season.

"We played UC-Irvine during the regular season," Gutor said. "I'm not trying to make up excuses, but [starting setter Luke Murray] went down."

During Game 2 of the previous meeting this season, Murray injured his ankle. While the team would go on to win that game, it was the only game it managed to take. Murray attempted a return to action the next game, but was essentially playing on one foot, and the Lions eventually fell 3-1 in the match.

Penn State head coach Mark Pavlik knows how good of a team the Lions are up against, and he expects it to be hungry.

"[UC-Irvine] is a group of seniors that are looking at it, and they remember what happened last year," Pavlik said. "I know those guys. I respect them immensely. They're going to be ready. I don't think it's anything more than us being ready to play a great Irvine team."

Asked about the team's chances now that he's returned to health, Murray said: "We're feeling pretty good about it. I wouldn't say we would have preferred to have gotten one team or the other -- we're going to have to beat tough teams no matter what.

"We know that we can hang with them, that we can beat them. We beat them a game there. We know we can do it."