Western Ontario and a club team from Denmark will add an international flavor to the six-team Nittany Lion-Mizuno Invitational volleyball tournament this weekend at Rec Hall. Penn State has dominated the tournament recently, winning the last two years.

Joining No. 8 Penn State and the two foreign teams will be No. 9 Ohio State, George Mason and Indiana-Purdue. The Lions square off with Western Ontario at 11 tomorrow morning and Ohio State at 7:30 tomorrow night. Both matches are in the South Gym.

Sunday's matches are in the main gym and begin at 11 a.m. with the fifth-place playoff. The semifinals are scheduled for 3 p.m. and the finals for 7:30.

Tom Tait, who coached his last volleyball match last weekend at the Indiana-Purdue Invitational, said the Lions should easily bounce back from the loss to USC last week.

"I think we made some real progress this past weekend," Tait said. "Two weeks prior to that we were really not ready to play high level ball. The second game (of the USC match) was really the only time the whole tournament that we did not play pretty solid ball."

Tait said the Lions have two minor injuries going into the tournament. Charlie Bertran is "day by day" with a slight strain in his leg, Tait said, and co-captain John Wasielewski is "real good now" with a slight hyperextension of the elbow.

He said the Lions will have to improve defensively to win the invitational.

"We've got to do a better job of blocking and play more disciplined back-row defense," said Tait. "We have to react a little bit better in the back row to balls that get by the block. Offensively, I'm reasonably pleased with where we are right now."

Tait said middle hitter Chris Chase and Bertran are playing well right now. He added that the play of last weekend's invitational was "hot and cold."

Incoming coach Tom Peterson said he does not have any expectations for the tournament because he does not know the players well enough. The new coach said he will count on Tait's input in the tournament.

"He's been a great coach in the past," said Peterson, "and you just don't say, 'Hey I'm doing things my way and I don't want to hear about you.' People get better by listening to experts, and he's an expert."