Penn State men's club soccer is off and running, and with a region lead the team doesn't expect to be caught.

"We are the best team in the region," club president Chad Meldrum (senior-architectural engineering) said. "It is just a matter of us proving it continuously."

The region consists of 10 teams. The top two finishers go to the national tournament at the University of Texas. Penn State went last year, as the No. 2 team in the region, behind Navy, and finished ninth. This season the team has already beaten Navy once.

"Navy was No. 1 last year, and we beat them 3-0. We handled them," said Meldrum.

The club has hosted two tournaments already this year, during the past two weekends.

Both were held at Pollock fields, and Penn State won both. Going into the weekend, the team was expecting wins in all of its games.

Elliott Toobin (junior-marketing-international business) said anything less than three wins would be a disappointment. Three wins is exactly what they got. They beat the Cornell club team 4-0, then Delaware 5-0 and then beat Pennsylvania 8-1. The team consists of 32 men, with each of them usually seeing time in the games. The players are interchangeable and it is nice to have fresh legs, according to Meldrum. For away tournaments the team travels with closer to 20 players. The talent level is high, and they even have three ex-varsity players.

The club is open to anyone who wants to be involved in soccer. Also, they run a league for students. It is a 34-team league that plays seven-on-seven soccer. The club organizes the games, officials, and field times. All Penn State students are eligible to play.

"The goal of our club is to provide soccer to as many students as possible," said Meldrum.

The club has grown over the last few years.

"We have come a long way," Meldrum said. "We are looking at a 20-game season, with two events at Penn State." The club began as the better players in the league decided to get together on their own and enter tournaments. Now the team practices four days a week, for about two hours a day, according to Toobin. Funding from club sports and their own fundraising supports the team.

"We run ourselves. We make our own schedule," Meldrum said.

Now the team can look forward to the Virginia Tech Hokie Classic at the end of September. The team will be looking to point in one direction for the remainder of the season — nationals.