Saturday will mark the final time the Penn State men's lacrosse coach Glenn Thiel will get a look at his team in competition before next weekend's season opener against Notre Dame.

The Nittany Lions head to Lehigh for a pair of scrimmages starting at noon. Thiel's squad will play the Mountain Hawks in the first matchup while the Nittany Lions' will meet either Marist or Drexel in game two.

"We'll take one of the games to figure out our top units," Thiel said. "We'll look at other things, too like conditioning and how the units work together. The competition will be pretty good, so we'll get a good idea of where we stand."

The Mountain Hawks defeated the Nittany Lions last year 16-10 in Happy Valley and while the Red Foxes may remain a bit of a mystery to Thiel's squad, Penn State did face the Dragons in a controlled scrimmage during fall workouts.

Thiel also wants to use this weekend to give his younger players some field time.

"This will be a chance for the younger guys to get some time and allow us to see how they react," Thiel said.

"Our biggest concerns are going to be how we blend the young kids in on defense. We'll also mix some of the offensive units to see how they fit in there."

Assistant coach Lars Tiffany, who heads the defense, said he wants to see more aggression out of his units.

"One thing I've been talking to them about is being more physical," Tiffany said.

"But since you can't hit your own guys in practice, it's kind of one of those things though where we needed to wait until the scrimmages.

"I want to beat up Lehigh so we have reason to be confident going into the Notre dame game."

Tiffany is also looking for more cohesion between his players.

"We need to continue to play as a unit," Tiffany said. "We've got a lot of good athletes but we need to get them to progress together as one unit."

The weekend doubleheader will also allow Thiel to get a better grasp on the team's goalie situation.

Senior Mall Vallone and sophomore Chris Garrity are in a neck-and-neck race for the starting role.

Thiel said Vallone has kept a slight edge throughout the spring even though Garrity was recently named a preseason All-ECAC first team selection.

"The expectations are pretty high for these kids and it's time to produce," Thiel said. "You want to see how they do with outside competition. This weekend we may see who gets an inside edge."