Going into the 1990 season, the coaches of the men's volleyball team have three performance goals for their young Lions:

-- To be the best defensive team in the history of Penn State.

-- To have the most sophisticated offense in the United States.

-- To win the NCAA championship.

Those aren't exactly humble goals, especially considering Penn State has lost All-Americans Chris Chase and Robert Pierce from last year's 17-11 Final-Four team.

But Coach Tom Peterson, entering his second season, doesn't believe the team will suffer because of the transition.

"To tell you the truth, every year is a transition season," Peterson said. "Every semester is a transition. Every injury is a transition. I think that for certain reasons we're going to be a better team than last year. I think a lot of that has to do with team cohesion."

"I see us having to play as a team," senior co-captain Todd Shirley said. "I don't think we have the star players that we've had in the past, as in Chris Chase. If we're going have a good and successful season we're going to have to have six guys on the court all playing together."

The Lions' top returnee is right-side hitter Guillo Silva. An honorable mention All-American last year, Silva finished among the team leaders in kills (355), service aces (12), digs (139) and blocks (60).

"I think he's working harder than he has before," Peterson said. "I haven't seen that in him as much as I have this year."

"I think on the court he's been a leader," assistant coach Bob Titzer said. "I don't think there's much question."

Silva is currently sidelined with a broken finger on his right hand. His status for the season-opening Mizuno-Nittany Lion Invitational this weekend is questionable.

Perhaps the key to the season for the Lions will be the play of the middle blockers. Four players -- Shirley, Kevin Mosbacher, Winfield Evens and Tito Nunez -- are battling for the two starting spots.

Shirley and Evens, a sophomore, each got considerable playing time last year, while junior Mosbacher saw only limited action. Nunez is a freshman. But Evens is the tallest at 6'5"; Chase was 6'10". This lack of height could pose a problem.

"In the middle, we have to just get better because we're not a real great blocking team," Peterson said. "We're just going to have to get smarter and jump higher than the other people."

"Height-wise we're probably not going to be a dominating blocking team," assistant coach Mark Pavlik agreed.

Though the Lions may not have a dominating middle blocker, their overall depth at the position should be better than last year.

"I think it's real good that we're real competitive," Evens said. "If one of us isn't playing well there's always someone else there who's ready to step in."

Juniors Charlie Bertran and Jorge Perez begin the season as the starting outside hitters. Perez finished fourth on the team last year in total kills and hitting percentage and Bertran was a quality player when he was healthy.

"I've got to be a really strong blocker," Bertran said. "Usually teams go at outside-hitters in blocking because we're usually the weakest, so I want to make sure I'm really strong this year."

"Outside we've got pretty good experience and good physical specimens, but here too, we're not very tall," Peterson said. "At times we've just got to make sure that we're smart enough."

The play of the outside hitters will probably determine whether or not Penn State lives up to the coaches' goal of the 1990 squad being the best defensive team in Lions' history.

"We run a lot of different (defensive) combinations," freshman Mike Schall said. "Our outside hitters are able to hit anywhere on the floor . . . so they're real versatile players."

"We're going to have to do things smarter and really integrated as a team this year more so than any other year," Pavlik said. "We've got to take areas of the court away and we've got to channel the ball to our best defensive players."

If there is a position that the Lions don't have to worry about, it's setter. Junior Scott Miller started all 24 regular season matches last year and was a team leader in hitting percentage, digs and blocks. And sophomore Jim Schall, Mike's brother, led Penn State to the EIVA Championship when Miller was sidelined with an ankle injury.

Peterson has yet to decide who the starter will be. Jim Schall played with the first team during last Saturday's alumni match, but Miller also played well.

"I really can't say if I'm going to be a starter throughout the season," Jim Schall said. "I'd like to be, but that's up to the coach to decide.

"There's a lot of good competition going on between us. I think it's helpful for both of us."

Mike Schall will be used as a defensive specialist to cross the backrow for a middle blocker. According to NCAA rules, however, a substitute may only come into and out of the game once.

"When they come out, they're done and that's it," Peterson said "It makes it tough. We want (the defensive specialist) to go in the game . . . (and) make a difference. (Mike Schall) is going to be one of the best defensive players Penn State's ever had."

"With my size I'm not one of the big hitters," Mike Schall said. "(But I can) maybe make a key dig or be a spark."

Penn State's 1990 squad has the luxury of a versatile bench that acts as an insurance policy in case a starter is injured or goes into a slump.

Case in point: senior co-captain John Wasielewski, the team's No. 1 reserve at outside hitter and on the right side, is currently filling in for the injured Silva.

Other role players for the Lions are juniors Larry Perry and Spencer Seibert, sophomores Tom Gingrich, Richard Kowarick and Dave Yost and freshmen Scott Kelley, Ben Myles and Ricky Roper.

Offensively, a strong passing game is necessary if Penn State is to be among the most sophisticated offenses in the country.

"Everything goes back to passing," Peterson said. "If we pass well now, we don't have to just depend on somebody banging the ball through people, because that's not our forte.

"It's going to be a very nice offense because . . . (we're) pretty diversified . . . and our outside hitters are very good at a diversified offense."

"We run one of the fastest offenses in the country and have a lot of options out of it," Shirley said. "We're going to be a hard offense to stop."

More important than either offense or defense, however, is conditioning.

"I think we're probably in better shape than any of the teams we've played in the preseason," Titzer said. "I think, in fact, we may have won some of our matches because we were in better shape. We don't want to ever lose a match because the other team was in better shape than us."

And equally important as physical preparation is psychological preparation.

"That's another one of our goals -- dealing with a little sports psychology," said Peterson, who is completing work on a doctorate in physical education professional leadership, with a sports psychology emphasis. "You have to have some kind of anxiety to get ready for whatever you're doing, but if you're overanxious then your performance goes down."

Penn State, ranked No. 8 in the country in Volleyball Monthly's preseason poll, has a long, challenging road ahead before it can earn a chance to accomplish Goal No. 3 -- the national championship.

The Lions compete in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association. The winner of the post-season EIVA Championships earns an automatic Final-Four berth.

"It's going to be a scramble to win the EIVA," Peterson said. "Just to get to the Final Four it's going to be tough."

The Lions' toughest competition in the EIVA will come from Rutgers- Newark and arch-rival George Mason, No. 10 in the country.

Things get even harder outside of the conference, as Penn State will likely play most of the Top 10 teams in the country at various tournaments and on its spring-break trip to the West Coast.

"You have to play great competition to become a good team," Peterson said. "You can't just sit back and beat up on people. You have to go where the best competition is."

"I'll take quality losses versus non-quality wins," Pavlik added. "You're going to learn something, you're going to get better, and you're going to see what you have to do to win. It's a real good barometer of where we sit."

And if everything works out for the best, Penn State could find itself in Fairfax, Va., during the first weekend of May, playing for the national championship.

"To be in the Final Four and ultimately win the Final Four -- we as a team have agreed that that is a feasible goal for us," Shirley said.

Talk is cheap, though. Having completed a long, successful preseason during which they defeated defending national champion UCLA, the Lions are ready to get the season underway and prove that they're as good as they say they are.

"I think we have a really good attitude going in," Mike Schall said. "I think the practices this week will be really intense. We all know that the real season starts this week, so I think we're going to be ready to go."

"I'm not really satisfied just being eighth in the nation," Bertran said. "I think we're a little bit better than that and we can prove it."