It's a young season for a young Penn State women's track and field team. That means it's time to start getting on the learning curve.

Tomorrow, the Nittany Lions are looking for growing experience and progress when they take on a number of the region's top teams at the University of Pennsylvania Invitational in Philadelphia.

This meet will be of special importance for the Lions.

Under Big Ten Conference rules, a team is allowed to have all its members travel to and compete in one meet per season. The Lions are taking advantage of the proximity and prestige of the Penn Invitational for this exception.

"It's just a good opportunity to compete," Lions track and field coach Beth Alford-Sullivan said. "Looking forward, we are expected to compete. It's a lower key event, but it'll be nice to get under our belts."

Like last weekend's meet at Raleigh, the Penn Invitational is an unscored meet, meaning individual performances instead of team scores are the emphasis.

With a young team beginning the new spring season, Alford-Sullivan said she is looking for improvements across the board for the Lions. The team is dominated by freshmen and sophomores who can still work toward realizing their personal best performances.

Sophomore Chloe Murdock, who will run in the 800-meter competition tomorrow, is among many of the younger Lions looking for personal improvement.

"I want to beat my personal best and run to my potential," Murdock said. "I'm hoping to get my individual performance rolling by improving on last weekend."

Freshman Kayla Matrunick, another young Lion and competitor in the 1500-meter run, agrees with Murdock's goal of individual improvement, adding, "It's a good meet to gain confidence."

Alford-Sullivan said that in addition to placing several top finishers in a variety of events, improvement by young team members such as Murdock and Matrunick is the top goal of the Penn Invitational.

"It always takes a meet or two to warm up," she said.

"We're (she and the other coaches) looking for improvement more and more as the season builds."

It's not just the younger ones who will be watched for progress tomorrow.

Among the more established team members, consistency and improvement will be key determinants of a successful trip. Returning All-Americans Brianne Johnson (javelin), Deshaya Williams (discus), and Connie Moore (200-meter dash) will be using the Penn Invitational to work towards repeating as All-Americans and making NCAA qualifying marks.

Despite her relative inexperience, Matrunick showed maturity in summing up the objective of the Penn Invitational for her and the rest of the Lions squad.

"We're just looking to get results with what we're working for," she said. "This meet lets us put it all out and we have nothing to lose."