When it plays East Stroudsburg at 7:30 tonight in the South Gym at Rec Hall, the men's volleyball team will attempt to establish itself as a great team.

"We're a good team but we haven't proved we're a great team yet," Coach Tom Peterson said. "A great team doesn't ever play down to anybody else's play level. So we have to show how mature we are right now by just coming out and going for it, beating (East Stroudsburg) as bad as we can."

The Lions are hoping they finally shed their season-long inconsistency with a convincing three-game sweep at Pepperdine last Saturday. Penn State finished its Western trip with a 3-3 record.

"We learned a couple things (on the trip)," Peterson said. "One is that we can stay with anybody . . . (and) we can beat anybody. It's our mental preparation that's got a whole bunch to do with it."

The Warriors are 9-6 overall, but are winless in three Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association matches. East Stroudsburg has lost to Navy -- a team which Penn State man-handled last month in Rec Hall -- and should be easy pickings for the Lions (12-9, 2-1 in the EIVA).

"It could be an easy match for us," Peterson said. "It depends upon our mental preparation. We should beat them soundly if we just prepare ourselves to do that."

"We have to get geared up to play little teams," outside hitter Larry Perry said. "We have to get geared up to just go out and play the best that we can play and not stoop down to their level.

"We just can't get up to play Pepperdine or USC or George Mason. We've got to get up to play Navy and East Stroudsburg too, because you never know what could happen."

East Stroudsburg is coached by Bob Sweeney, who hasn't had a losing season in 13 years of coaching. The Warriors are led by middle blocker Vasilis Carkalis and freshman outside hitter Aaron Zoobrod, both of whom are hitting near .400 on the season.

"We can't look past anybody," setter Scott Miller said. "They're not the strongest team, but they're tough competitors. We've got to be careful."

Peterson blamed emotions for much of Penn State's inconsistency so far this season.

"I had hoped that we could just spend all of our time in practice on technique," he said. "We spent too much time with emotions and trying to stabilize our team. That's hurt us."

As the Lions enter the final third of the season, they will try to establish another thing which has eluded them all year -- a stable lineup. Miller and Jim Schall continue to battle at setter, and nothing is solved as of yet among middle blockers Todd Shirley, Winfield Evens, Kevin Mosbacher and Tito Nunez.

"We don't even have a stable lineup," Peterson said. "At the first of the year that's good and at the end of the year it's not quite so good. So, it would be nice to stabilize the lineup."

But Peterson added that the players who ended up not starting are still a key part of the team.

"If they don't start, some of them can get upset," Peterson said. "I wish they wouldn't look at it that way. Everybody's doing a nice job and playing time becomes too important in their minds."

"I think the players that come off the bench are really doing a good job," Miller said. "We play for that match . . . so if we need to make a change we will. I think if we keep on doing that, I don't think it'll really affect the team too much."

Notes: Tonight is Senior Night and the Lions will pay tribute to Guillo Silva and co-captains Shirley and John Wasielewski, who are playing in their final collegiate match in Rec Hall. "Those players have really contributed a lot to our program and to volleyball," Peterson said. "It would be a nice tribute to them to see a lot of people out to see them for the last time."