The Penn State men's soccer team came into this season with three goals.

First, the Nittany Lions wanted to complete the regular season with a good win-loss record. They accomplished that by going 13-3-1 in the regular season. Second, they wanted to win the Big Ten tournament. A controversial red card dashed those dreams as they lost to Michigan State in the semifinals.

The third and probably most important goal still remains for the Lions and tomorrow they will try to take the next step toward achieving it. Penn State will travel to Garden City, N.Y., to play St. John's in a third round NCAA tournament game at noon at Adelphi University.

The Lions are coming off Sunday's exhausting win against South Florida. It took three overtimes before the Lions were finally able to tally a goal and get past the Bulls and into the second round of the tournament.

South Florida was a good team but St. John's is one of the elite teams in the nation. The Red Storm is the No. 8 team in the country and has posted an impressive 15-2-3 record. It also won the Big East tournament by defeating Connecticut 1-0.

Aside from No. 5 Indiana the Lions have not played a team that has been ranked as high as the Red Storm. Even though this is the case the Lions say that they are going to go into this game just like any other.

"I think our mindset is the same in all of our tournament games because whenever you play in the NCAA tournament it is almost like a new season," senior midfielder Derek Potteiger said. "You lose and you are done. Every team is going to come out and play their best game."

St. John's has been on a roll lately, winning five straight games. Two major keys to its success have been senior midfielder Jeff Matteo and senior forward Shalrie Joseph. Both offensive threats were named first team All-Big East.

Penn State head coach Barry Gorman knows that his team must account for these players but he also knows he has a few weapons of his own.

"They are good players and we will have to watch them," Gorman said. "We'll take measures to account for them. Hopefully on the other side of the coin they will be taking measures to take care of people like Derek, Ricardo Villar, Brent Jacquette, and Chad Severs."

All of those players except for Severs were involved in the last game these two teams played against each other. The Lions won a bruising 2-1 game against the Red Storm in the 1999 NCAA Tournament.

Potteiger remembers that game and says he expects the same type of contest.

"Even though it's been two years since we've played them they are going to have similar characteristics and a lot of their players are still the same," Potteiger said. "I've thought about that game a lot and I realize that that's probably going to be like again this time. It's going to be a hard fought battle and the players that want to go out and make a difference are going to be the players that are going to be the difference."

The Lions hope that it will be the players on their squad that will make the difference.