The men's tennis team will not have time to test the waters of the Big Ten -- on Saturday, it will have to jump right in.

The team will travel to Michigan State for the Big Ten Indoor Invitational, a three-day tournament featuring 64 of the Big Ten's finest players.

"This is going to be a real good tournament," Coach Jan Bortner said. "With all eleven conference teams there, the players will get a chance to see the competition and get a real measure of who the top teams are."

Participating for Penn State will be Eduardo Abril, Greg Gaunt, Marc Price, Chad Skorupka, and Ivan Spinner.

All participants' names will be entered into a single draw. There will be no flights in the tournament.

"It's going to be a challenge for everyone on the team," Spinner said. "And it's an open tournament, so I could end up playing No. 1 from Ohio State or Indiana, or I could play No. 5.

"I feel confident. I want to play the top players in the country and I'll have the opportunity this weekend."

Bortner said that because the team is new to the Big Ten, and is not as strong as some the teams in the conference, it will bring only five players, whereas several of the stronger teams will bring six.

"We're new, and they haven't seen us play before," he said. "I would have preferred to bring six. That's one more player to taste the competition.

"That's a problem when you have a team with depth. The top seven are really close. (But) the tournament has been a great motivator. The (players) have been working real hard, trying to get a position in the top five."

In the past two weeks of practice, Bortner said he has been working on singles play and technique.

"We've been concentrating on singles play," he said. "We started off with techniques and drills, and (this week) we've been working on match play."

There will be no consolation matches or doubles matches in the tournament.