Last Saturday's last-second loss to Pitt was a deja vu of sorts for the men's swimming and diving team. Penn State was in the same situation at Virginia last year but pulled out the win with less than a second to spare.

The Lions get a chance to avenge the Pitt meet at 4 p.m. today against Shippensburg. Then, on Saturday, No. 15 Virginia visits McCoy Natatorium and Penn State hopes that feeling of deja vu will not return.

For today's meet, Coach Peter Brown and Shippensburg coach Donald Miller have agreed to modify the lineup to include shorter races. Last year the Lions, not swimming in their usual events, used a 132-103 victory over Shippensburg to prepare for a win over Pitt two days later.

Perhaps this is one of the strategies Brown has in store for Virginia.

"I don't want to have the Shippensburg meet hurt us," he said. "I don't want people swimming in events that potentially could hinder their performance over the weekend, so I'm trying to avoid that."

Phil Meyer, who usually competes in long distance freestyle, will swim the 100-yard butterfly and 200 freestyle relay.

Other changes for Penn State are James Wolfle in the 400 individual medley and Drew Van Winkle in the 200 freestyle.

"Giving people the chance to swim other things and showing what they can do is a very good idea," Meyer said. "By swimming 100s and 200s, we won't be as tight on Saturday."

By concentrating on Virginia, Penn State may even be looking past Shippensburg, the No. 4 team in Division II last year.

Brown said he is using the meet with the Red Raiders as a stepping stone for Saturday's matchup, but he is not sure if the Virginia meet will come down to the end.

"They are definitely the ones to beat," he said. "We're just going to come at them with what we've got. They have practically everyone back from last year and some stud freshmen."

Virginia coach Mark Bernardino said he is certain the meet will come down to the wire as in past years.

He refused to reveal his strategies but said that Brown will probably be able to find the Cavaliers' weaknesses and exploit them to the Lions' advantage.

"The best way for us to win and the only way for us to win is to have our best meet of the year," Bernardino said. "We are just going to have to have a meet where we make no mistakes. It's going to be really close."

"We are going to need more of a team effort than against Pittsburgh," Brown said. "We were good but we are going to have to keep getting better."

Overall, Brown is optimistic about Penn State's chances of winning both meets.

"We have it in us," he said. "I'm not asking the guys to do any more than what they are capable of doing. If they do that, we'll feel good about our team effort."