After winning its second national championship in three years last May, the women's lacrosse team will take its first step toward another this weekend.

Tomorrow the Lady Lions will compete in the William and Mary Invitational, in which 20-odd teams play six matches. Each game is only 25 minutes long. The scores will not count for season records, so most of the teams will try various combinations.

Then on Sunday, the team will stay in the area to face Richmond at 1 p.m. in the first official match of the season.

"(The Invitational) will give us a chance to try different people at different positions and see what combinations work well," Coach Julie Williams said. "With no win-loss recorded, it'll give you a good idea of what you have."

"It's crazy stuff," co-captain Tracy Mass said. "Teams will throw everything at you just to see what you've got."

After a long preseason, the players are looking forward to playing against other teams. Yet two starters from last season's 19-1 squad, senior co-captain Mary Ann Foley and sophomore Ann Kolongowski, are out indefinitely with knee injuries. This makes the weekend all the more critical in solidifying positions.

Still, four other starters -- Mass, co-captain Diane Whipple, Karen Hoysted and Megan Smith -- all return to the lineup. After tomorrow's play, Williams hopes to finalize the lineup and substitution rotations for Sunday.

Last season, Penn State also opened the season against Richmond and came away with a 15-1 victory. Still, Williams, in her first official game as coach, is wary of the Lady Spiders.

"It's probably not (going to be a similar game)," she said. "People who scored 11 of the goals for us (Foley and All-American Tami Worley) are not on the field. Richmond has everyone back, except for one kid; it'll be different."

In that game, Richmond played at a very deliberate pace which obviously didn't work because, as Williams said, Penn State wouldn't allow it to. Mass added that the Lady Lions' offense was particularly careful, always looking for the best shot. "It's not a typical Temple run-and-gun," she said.

As an added test this weekend, Williams, Mass and Whipple will try to make a select United States team that will travel to Canada this summer for several exhibition games. Whipple said close to 50 people will try out, but only 16 will make the trip.

The tryouts will be Saturday evening, after many of the participants have played all day in the Invitational.

"It's a good opportunity," Whipple said. "We're just going to be very tired."