STATE COLLEGE, Pa., April 27, 2002 - Behind junior Carlos Guerra's (Tamaulipus, Mexico) match-high 23 kills, the fifth-ranked Penn State men's volleyball team survived a scare from Rutgers-Newark in the finals of the EIVA Tournament, downing the Scarlet Raiders in five games, 30-23, 19-30, 30-26, 26-30, 15-9 in front of 1,861 fans Saturday night. Penn State improves to 25-3 while Rutgers-Newark ends their season at 19-11.

The Lions will join Ball State and the winner of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament, either Hawaii or Pepperdine, plus an at-large team to be announced Sunday, in next week's National Championship at Rec Hall.

Penn State has won the EIVA Tournament the last four seasons to earn the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The Lions have now competed in the NCAA Tournament 11 of the last 12 seasons.

Juniors Zeljko Koljesar (Kitchener, Ontario) and Zach Slenker (Dallastown, Pa.) also contributed heavily for the Lions, adding 18 and 17 kills, respectively, a season-high for Slenker. Between Guerra, Koljesar and Slenker, the three tallied 58 of Penn State's 75 total kills. As a team, the Lions recorded 13 more kills than Rutgers-Newark (75-62) while outhitting them .336 to .313 for the match. Penn State is 24-1 when leading in attack percentage and 24-2 when leading in kills.

Penn State was outblocked 16.5 to 11.5, only the eighth time in 28 matches this season that has occurred. Slenker and sophomore Norm Keil (St. James, N.Y.) led the Lions with five while Guerra tallied four putbacks. Sophomore libero Ricky Mattei (San Juan, Puerto Rico) had a match-high 10 digs for Penn State.

Senior setter Jos¨¦ Qui?ones (Bayamon, Puerto Rico), the EIVA Player of the Year, dished out 60 assists and tallied six digs and three blocks while connecting on all four of his attacks to hit 1.000 in the match. Qui?ones now sits at 6,301 career assists, 1,541 ahead of second-place Dan Pollock (1996-1999) on the all-time assist chart.

After the match, Slenker, Qui?ones, and Mattei were named to the EIVA All-Tournament team, with Guerra picking up the tournament's Most Outstanding Player recognition.

Rutgers-Newark was led by Ryan Burrow's 20 kills, followed by Jeremy Hoff's 18 kills and five blocks. Jeremy Desiron charted 10 kills on a ..533 hitting percentage. Freshman setter Aleks Ondelj guided the Scarlet Raiders to a .313 team attack percentage with 50 assists, five kills, five digs and three blocks. Ben Bostaph tallied the unique line of 12 blocks and zero kills. Burrow, Ondelj and Desiron were all named to the EIVA All-Tournament Team.

In the fifth and deciding game, Penn State used its championship experience to win its fourth successive EIVA Tournament championship. Following a 2-2 tie, the Lions scored four consecutive points with only one offensive point in the mix. Rutgers-Newark would not climb closer than four points the rest of the game. Penn State hit .333 in the fifth game with eight kills. In contrast, the Scarlet Raiders produced just four kills in the game on 18 attacks with five hitting errors.

Rutgers-Newark built an early 11-8 lead in game one, but the Lions rallied to score four of the next five to tie the game at 12-12. Neither team enjoyed more than a two-point lead in the middle stages of the match. Rutgers-Newark took its final lead of the opener at 20-19 and after a tie at 21-21, Penn State erupted for three consecutive points and end the game on a 9-2 run. Guerra netted five kills in the first game as Penn State hit .517.

The Scarlet Raiders picked up an early 10-6 lead in game two, and unlike the first game, did not allow the Lions back into the game. Rutgers-Newark led by no less than three points the rest of the game and held leads as high as 12 points. Hoff led the Scarlet Raider attack with five kills in the second game. Rutgers-Newark, after a .258 percentage in game one, improved to .538 in the second game.

Game three produced a nail-biter for both the teams and fans. Neither team held more than a two-point margin until the late stages of the game. At 25-25, Penn State broke the tie on a Scarlet Raider service error and increased its lead to 28-25 on a Rutgers-Newark hitting error and a Guerra kill. The Lions gave back a point on a service error, but closed the game with back-to-back kills by Guerra and senior Jason Hawkins (Lake Mary, Fla.) for a 30-26 win. Both teams hit well in the third game, but Penn State's .481 mark bettered the Scarlet Raiders' ..350.

Rutgers-Newark won game four 30-26 to even the match at two games apiece and force a fifth and deciding game. The Scarlet Raiders broke free from a slim 16-15 margin by scoring four of the next five points for a 20-16 advantage. Rutgers-Newark increased its margin to six points at 23-17, only to see Penn State slice to gap to three points at 23-20. However, the Scarlet Raiders regrouped and led 29-24 and won the game 30-26 on its third game point. Burrow tallied nine kills for the Scarlet Raiders in the fourth game, including game point.

The tournament field for the NCAA Championship held next weekend, May 2 & 4, will be announced Sunday, April 28. The first semifinal match will take place May 2 beginning at 6 p.m. with the next match starting approximately at 8:00 p.m. The National Championship match will be held on May 4 at 7:00 p.m. ET and will be broadcast live on ESPN2. The first semifinal game will air on ESPN2 on a tape-delay basis on Friday, May 3 at 2 a.m. ET with the second semifinal being shown on ESPN2 on May 3 at 1 p.m. ET.

More than 4,050 tickets have been sold for the NCAA Championship. The capacity of Rec Hall for the event will be 6,050 and fewer than 2,000 tickets remain. Penn State is hosting the NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship for the third time and the first time since 1986. In '86, the Lions won the EIVA crown, but lost to eventual champion Pepperdine in the national semifinals. In 1982, UCLA defeated Penn State in the NCAA title match in Rec Hall.

In 1994, Penn State became the first team outside of California to win the national championship when it stunned No. 1 UCLA in a five-game thriller for the title in the 25th NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship.

Fans can call 814-865-5555 or 800-863-3336 to purchase tickets or for more information.

Please visit the men's volleyball homepage at www.GoPSUsports.com for the complete game and season statistics.

Bill Kauffman of the AVCA contributed to this story.

--LIONS--