Tomorrow the men's lacrosse team will open its home season against rival Villanova. The matchup will be the first-ever regular season game between the two teams, but a rivalry has developed in three years of preseason play.

The Lions (1-2) host the Penn State Invitational tomorrow and Sunday and will start play against the Wildcats (2-0) at 1 p.m. at Holuba Hall. Lehigh and Virginia Military Institute play at 3:30 tomorrow.

"We don't like Villanova," midfielder Paul Fisher said. "If we have to drop the sticks and fight, we'll fight. It's going to be a rivalry -- we have a lot of Pennsylvania kids on our team and they have a lot, specifically from Philadelphia. To them, it's more than a game, it's bragging rights."

Defensemen Paul McKelvey is from the Philadelphia area and played against some of the Wildcat players in high school. He said the game is proving ground for the best Pennsylvania lacrosse team.

"It's like two fairly strong Pennsylvania teams going against each other trying to prove something," McKelvey said. "Pennsylvania lacrosse isn't exactly looked at as being the at the height of the lacrosse world."

In preseason play, Villanova has defeated the Lions twice, but Penn State beat the Wildcats last fall. At the time, three of the Wildcats' top defensemen were not playing, so the Lions will have to contend with a much stronger team tomorrow. Coach Glen Thiel said the game was hard enough the first time and that the added talent will only make it more difficult to score.

After last week's 17-6 loss to Hofstra, the Lions have to put aside the rivalry and forget about their past record with Villanova and concentrate on the details of the game. Villanova has beaten such powerhouses as Duke and Notre Dame and Hofstra.

"We have to get after ground balls and we have to be more aggressive on defense," Thiel said. "We were just a little too blase and passive against Hofstra. We have to come out of the gun right off the opening whistle and we have to be ready to play. We've got to be intense and play aggressive defense and we have to get after the ground ball. If we do that, we'll be right with them -- it'll be a heck of a game."

Thiel said Villanova has a strong offense with two powerful attackmen. Chris Sullivan and John McAvoy will force Lion defensemen McKelvey and Paul Gilhool to play well to stop their powerful drives toward goal. Allowing the ball to get in past the defensive players was a major problem in last week's loss.

"This week we've been doing a lot of running and a lot of drills that are geared towards being able to play the cutters (opponents dodging through the crease towards the goal) very well," McKelvey said. "The close defense definitely has to be up for the game and the defensive middies definitely have to play a much better game then they did this past weekend.

If the ball does manage to get in past the close defense, either Jamie Morse or J.J. Pearl will have to contend with the shooting abilities of the Villanova players. Thiel had not decided the starter as of yesterday. He said both are playing well and it will come to who he feels is capable of doing the job tomorrow.

The Lions have won the Penn State Invitational the past three years with wins over Notre Dame and Nazareth. The winners from the first day of competition will compete at 3. Sunday afternoon. The consolation match at 1 p.m.

Thiel said similar tournaments have only recently become popular because teams worry about being able to run the players two days in a row. Now, though, the two-day tournaments have become part of many schools' programs. Thiel said the players do get tired more quickly the second day, but that more players will get a chance to play in the second day.

"Mentally it's difficult, (but) physically it's not," Fisher said. "We practice every day so physically it's nothing, but getting ourselves mentally prepared for games two days in a row is something we're not used to and it is difficult."