The men who helped establish Penn State's volleyball program in the 1970 and early 1980s return tomorrow to take on the current Nittany Lions, who are ranked No. 8 nationally in Volleyball Monthly's preseason poll.

Informal matches will be held throughout the day starting at about 10 a.m. and the feature match between the best of the alumni, who will be coached by former Penn State coach Tom Tait, and the Lions' varsity team will be held at about 3 p.m.

"The 10 o'clock match, obviously anybody is welcome that wants to come in and watch," said assistant coach Mark Pavlik, who will play for the alumni. "The best way to describe it is kind of like a backyard type of setup -- not in terms of how the game's played -- but you've got a lot of guys that only see each other here and they'll get together.

"The three o'clock match is going to be the feature match where we really introduce the players and go through all that fun stuff."

About 30 alumni, including former All-Americans Mike Guyon, Tom Hahn, Jeff Johnson, Chuck Kegerreis, John Phillips and Stew Russell are expected to participate.

Dave Bittner, Mike Gordon, Mike Hogan, Dave Mull, Jose Rubayo and Carey Seavy -- players who were selected to the All-East Team once or more during their years at Penn State -- will also attend.

Four-time All-American Chris Chase, however, will not be present tomorrow. Chase has a slightly more pressing engagement this weekend -- he is in San Diego trying out for the U.S. National Team.

The alumni have not faired well against the varsity squad in recent years; last year, the Lions defeated their predecessors in four out of five games.

"I hear the alumni, they're out to beat our butts," Coach Tom Peterson said. "We're ready for them. They can play some mind games against us. That'll be kind of a goal this weekend: we play our game and don't let anybody dictate to us even though they have more experience."

Tomorrow's match will be the Lions' last warm-up before they begin the season next weekend as host of the annual Mizuno-Nittany Lion Invitational.

"I think we really get to take a look at how we are and where we are right now and it'll help us next week for next week's practice in preparation for our tournament," setter Scott Miller said. "We're looking to have fun but also we know they're going to be wanting to beat us so we're going to be ready to play hard and play well."

"It's our first real chance to put six guys on the court and see how everyone's going to play together," senior co-captain Todd Shirley said. "On that basis it's a really important weekend (and) we're not taking it lightly. We've got a lot of good alumni who are coming back and it should be a good match."

The Lions will be without Guillo Silva, who has a broken finger on his right hand. Silva's status for next weekend's tournament is still up in the air.

Tomorrow's matches could be crucial for a number of players who are competing for spots in the starting lineup. The competition is especially tough at middle blocker, where Shirley, Kevin Mosbacher, Winfield Evens and Tito Nunez are vying for the two starting positions.

"After a long break over Christmas we've all come back and we're in the process of getting into shape," Shirley said. "This weekend's going to be the first time to show if we've made any improvement over our break and what we've done on our own over that time. It'll definitely be important as far as . . . who will be the starting middle blockers . . . or any position."

Tomorrow's feature match is sure to reach the same emotional level as the Lions' December match against the Pennsylvania All-Stars -- a club team that featured Bittner, Gordon and Johnson, among others.

"Myself and a lot of the other players I know really love the chance to go back again and we get a chance to play against the guys who were starting when we were there," Shirley said. "So it almost turns into like a grudge match type of thing, where we're saying, 'We're the best team that ever was,' and they're like, 'No, we were the best back then.' "

Pavlik, who graduated from Penn State in 1982, was asked if he was looking forward to getting back out on the court tomorrow.

"Always," Pavlik said. "Hey, it's a lifetime sport."