The Nittany Lion fencers are in for a dogfight tomorrow in the White Building.

St. John's, Stanford, Duke, Penn and Ohio State visit Happy Valley and the Lions will fence every team except the Quakers.

For the men, redemption should play a major factor as they try to erase from memory a 15-12 loss to St. John's last season.

"St. John's is nasty," said senior epee fencer Brendan Baby. "If we go in there expecting to get beat, we will. They destroyed us in the dual meet last year. I'd like to do the same thing to them this year."

Baby, with a 9-3 dual meet record this season, should have a lot to say about that on the strip. So too will junior Daniel Landgren, who has an unblemished 10-0 record. Freshman Adam Wiercioch, a modest 4-2 in duals, may need to work more for the Lions this weekend.

Junior epee fencer Stephanie Eim has a different outlook.

"I wish the dual meet coming up now, would be later (in the season)," Eim said.

There is cause to worry for Penn State. St. John's and Stanford finished in the top four last year for the NCAA title. The Nittany Lions held just a four-point advantage over the Red Storm.

The women's epee will also lose the services of Jessie Burke for the action. According to Penn State fencing coach Emmanuil Kaidanov, Burke was admitted to Centre Community Hospital due to severe pain in the abdominal area on Wednesday. She may feel better tomorrow, but won't be ready to compete.

The loss of Burke makes the epee squad very thin. Of the three epee fencers competing, only Eim is the only one with significant collegiate fencing experience.

"It will show us our deficits. Then, we have time to change them for the end of the season," Eim said.

Keeping those deficits to a minimum, veteran leadership will pay dividends. Captains Charlotte Walker, epee, and Michael Takagi, saber, will work overtime to keep spirits high.

If or when they lead, the others will in turn follow.

"Morale is excellent," Kaidanov said. "But morale only takes you so far."

For Penn State to win all four, they need production from every weapon. That includes men's foil and men's saber. Freshman Non Panchan, foil, went 11-1 in the first duals.

Now, he's riding a wave of confidence after a seventh place finish in the NAC Open two weeks ago. Takagi and new addition Amir Rahimi should lead saber.

"Jon (Charles) and Non will have to step up," Baby said.

"And I know they will."

Charles got off to a lackluster start at 4-6 in foil, but he was 24-9 last year.

"St. John's can be strong," said junior saber fencer Austin O'Neill.

O'Neill, an 11-1 fencer, has two other warriors by her side in Heather Brosnan and Stephanie Tam.

"Momentum is extremely important," O'Neill said.

"Everyone wants to get us. After being undefeated six years in a row, we're the ones to beat. We know they're training to beat us," she added.