The 2002 Penn State men's lacrosse season will begin to take shape this weekend.
The No. 16 Nittany Lions will travel to South Bend, Ind. on Sunday to take on No. 11 Notre Dame at 1 p.m. The Fighting Irish lead the series 5-3, including a 10-8 win last season on the Lions' home field. This season the Lions will get the chance to return the favor, but they are making sure that the revenge issue does not take the forefront.
"Sure we are going out there looking to win, but revenge isn't the highest priority," senior Tim Emmick said. "Going out there and starting our season on a high note is the highest priority. They are a good team and going out there and beating them would be a good start."
The new-look Lions will feature seven new starters, but they aren't the only ones on the field trying to replace some key players. The Final Four team that won the Great Western Lacrosse League last year is missing many key players. Tom Glatzel, David Ulrich and Jon Harvey accounted for 90 of the 189 Irish goals last season. Glatzel terrorized the Lions last season for five goals in their meeting.
"This is our opener and it's a totally, totally different team and so are they," Penn State men's lacrosse coach Glenn Thiel said. "They lost a lot, we lost a lot. We both are pretty young teams with the same amount of veteran leadership."
The Lions face one of their toughest schedules as they will also face No. 5 Virginia in a non-conference match-up at home. It will be important for the Lions to get their freshman some experience in the non-conference matchups, so they can be ready for the ECAC games. Penn State will use the Notre Dame game as a measuring stick for where certain freshman are in their progress.
"We have lots of question marks with the freshman," Thiel said. "We don't know how they will react to game day stresses and situations. Guys like Mike Jacober and Will Jones, we haven't seen them in big games. They did well in fall and preseason and they have potential, but we have to see how they react to games or getting a break."
The Lions will set out on Sunday to break a two-game losing streak in their season openers.
