The women's tennis team, which features Kelly Erven and Claudia Karabedian, the No. 1 doubles team in the East, will swing into action this weekend when it hosts the Penn State Invitational.

In a flighted tournament, the Lady Lions will face Boston College, Columbia and Temple in their fifth competition of the spring season. The invitational, made up of four flights of A-D in singles competition and two flights of A and B in doubles competition, will start at 9 a.m. tomorrow and continue all day both tomorrow and Sunday at the tennis courts located next to East Halls, and the Penn State Tennis Club. If inclement weather occurs, all of the matches will be held at the Penn State Tennis Club.

Players will compete against each other on an individual level, rather than on a team level and team scores will not be tallied. In singles events, Erven and Karabedian will compete in the A-division, while Caroline Pierce and Lisa Thomas will participate in the B-division. Cathy Kissell and Stephanie Erb will test their skills in the C-division. Chris Vogel, Jody Carson, Emily Hull and Kari Yerg are tentative players in the D-division. Doubles competition will include the duo of Erven and Karabedian in the A-division. The team's competition in the B-division had been undecided as of earlier this week.

"I think we have some individuals that can do very well," Coach Jan Bortner said. "The way its flighted, I think we have some players that can make it to the championship round."

The level of competition will be high for the Lady Lions, who boast a 9-5 overall fall / spring record and a 1-2 spring record.

"Boston College is one of the top teams. It is an outstanding team from top to bottom," Bortner said.

"I know Boston College is very strong. Every (team) is going to be good," agreed Pierce, who is the team captain.

Bortner added that Temple has the most improved team in the Atlantic 10 this year and that Columbia is one of the top teams among the Ivy League schools.

Among the challenges for the ECAC championship doubles team of Erven and Karabedian will be a rematch against Temple's top doubles duo of Cindy Barber and Muffin Lupien. In the biggest Eastern meet of the season, Erven and Karabedian, seeded first, squashed Maryland's Jeri Ingrem and Liz Gibson in semifinal competition at the Princeton Invitational. Unwilling to accept defeat, the two went on to overtake Temple, 7-5, 6-0, in the finals competition, becoming the highest-ranked team in the East.

"It was a big win for them. They continue to play well. This weekend will be another major test," Bortner said.

Holding a 26-1 overall record for both the fall and spring seasons, the Erven-Karabedian duo became a powerful team in the collegiate tennis world in the fall when they won the ECAC doubles championship and were seeded first among the top 32 teams in the Northeast at the ITCA Northeast Regional Championships. An injury to Erven tarnished their otherwise successful season by forcing them to default at the championships.

The two resumed their competitiveness in February at the start of the spring season. As a doubles team, they are undefeated so far in the spring. The team, overall, is not having quite as much success. Although they began their spring season with a 9-0 win over Cornell, the Lady Lions fell to Richmond by a score of 3-6 and to Old Dominion, 4-5, on their Spring Break trip.

Not only will Penn State's No. 1 duo have to prove themselves again against the Owls, but Erven and Karabedian will have a double battle on their hands when they face Boston College's top-ranked team of Jennifer Lane and Katherine Sullivan. Boston College holds last year's ECAC championship title.

"There's not going to be any weak doubles teams. We're just going to try and win every match," Erven said.

Bortner said that ultimately the Erven-Karabedian combination wants to hold onto either the first or second spot among the teams in the East because the top two teams are the ones which go to NCAAs May 10-18.