Penn State men's lacrosse coach Glenn Thiel will get to see his squad in action against another school for the first time this season tomorrow.

The Nittany Lions will be hosting Gettysburg in a preseason scrimmage at 1 p.m. Saturday. The game will likely be held in Holuba Hall unless unexpected unseasonably warm weather allows them to use Jeffrey Field.

"This will be the first time we get to break things down and see what we can find out what our rotation is going to be," coach Glenn Thiel said. "We're probably going to get the starters in for the first three periods. After that we'll see what we have for depth."

Gettysburg, a Div. III powerhouse, finished last season a top the Centennial Conference with a 14-2 record, 6-0 in conference. The Bullets have two players ranked as preseason All-Americans in Division III in midfielder Tommy Pearce and defenseman Mike Planholt.

Gettysburg also has two preseason second-team All-Americans in attacker Peter Milliman and defenseman Adam Santer.

It will serve as a good chance for the Nittany Lions to see what they have and to try to settle upon a lineup.

The Lions are still drying to decide on a sure goalie. Senior Matt Vallone is the current favorite, but sophomore Chris Garrity has not been eliminated from competition yet. A number of other starting positions are still up for grabs.

"We're a very deep team," Thiel said. "From top to bottom there's really no drop off."

The squad is coming off a win in a game against the Alumni last weekend. Though the game was closer than usual, the Alums were still defeated. The event gave the Lions a chance to talk to the old players, and talked about the opportunity of being the first Nittany Lion team to make the NCAA tournament. The Lions finished 7-7 last season, and were ranked No. 19 in the country, but still did not garner a bid.

"The alumni always want to know if this is the team that this is capable of being the one to make the tournament," Thiel said. "A lot of the guys have really been talking about being the team to do that.

"This team wants to make a statement, they want to be the team that goes down as the first to get us in the tournament."