The enthusiasm permeates the air around the Penn State Tennis Club as the Lady Lions get set to kick off the spring tennis season.

"Basically we're trying to make a substantial improvement over last year and right now I definitely feel I have the clientele to do that," Coach Sue Whiteside said. "Our practices have been exellent -- very intense. In the air you can just tell there's a lot of enthusiasm right now."

Court practices resumed on Jan. 24 with strength training as a major component. The team endures such tortures as running the steps of Beaver Stadium.

"We've been heavily into strength training and will continue to do so throughout the season," Whiteside said. "I just try to make it fun so (the team) looks foward to coming to practice -- that's half the battle."

The Lady Lions have a tough season ahead starting with the two matches against Iowa and Minnesota this weekend. Over spring break the team will play four eastern schools then two more immedately following. Later in the season it will play Indiana, ranked 11th in the nation and Wisconsin, at No. 25, which may prove to be two of the tougher matches. But, there will be no "easy" matches.

"I feel confident we'll take Purdue like we always have but aside from that we're going to get stiff competition all the way down," Whiteside said. "So, it's not like we can go into the season expecting an easy win here or an easy win there."

This year some new players, like freshman Olga Novikova of Russia, join with the team, led by senior tri-captains Andi Chiumento, Kristin Kovalik and Tammy Okins-Nguyen, with a goal of finishing at least seventh in the conference.

"We have a lot more depth and our doubles is real strong," Whiteside said. "If anyone gets injured, or sick, I feel like I have enough depth that I can go to the next player."

Novikova, who came to Penn State in part on the advice of a former volunteer Lady Lion tennis coach, is extremely confident of her upcoming season. In her debut last semester she battled to 15-1 singles record at the No. 2 seed.

The only way for Novikova to top last season -- win it all.

"I'm going to win all my matches," Novikova said. "I think we're the best." But, she added that she can't speak for the team.

Whiteside did not want to release the order of seedings for the upcoming season, but explained her process of determining positions.

"I have them play, then we have some kind of (challenge) matches, but I don't really base it all on that because it's hard to play your teammates," Whiteside said. "Our goal is to beat other teams. We're there to push each other, we're not there to beat up on each other."