When the schedule was released they knew this would be the game.

The game that would decide their season, only they hoped it would be better than this.

When No. 3 Virginia (9-2, 4-1 ACC) comes to Happy Valley to meet the No. 17 Penn State (7-5, 1-4 ECAC) men's lacrosse team tomorrow at 1 p.m. at Jeffrey Field the Nittany Lions hope to put their season struggles behind them and end the season on a good note.

"(I have been looking forward to Virginia) for a long time," co-captain Will Driscoll said. "We did not have the season we hoped to have, but it comes down to this. We have a 7-5 record we want to make it 8-5 and hopefully upset a large team like Virginia."

In order to pull it off, the Lions must play better than they did in their 9-7 win over Bucknell Tuesday night. It was a game in which the Lions were sloppy and almost let a 4-1 lead erode.

"We can't play sloppy like we did (against Bucknell)," co-captain Sean Droogan said. "We have to keep up the intensity and cut down on the mental and physical mistakes."

Any mistakes by the Lions could prove deadly against an angry Cavalier squad coming off its ACC Championship game loss to No. 5 Duke. The loss was just the second of the season for Virginia. The first came against No. 2 Syracuse.

After Tuesday night's affair, the Lions have had little time to prepare for the Cavaliers, something which does not seem to be worrying them.

"We will just put together our report," former Cavalier and current Lions coach Glenn Thiel said. "We have not done a whole lot of practice in the last 10 days. It is a confidence thing, just have to be able to do our thing. . . it is just a mater of fine tuning things."

Things like making sure Driscoll, the conference's leading scorer, gets his touches down low, something he did not get against the Bison.

Senior Day could be a big celebration for the Lions, who are looking to complete a three-game winning streak, their longest of the season.

"We were 5-5 a while back and looking for character," Driscoll said. "If we complete this three-game run that would be great going into next year for the younger guys. It would be a complete season for us."

A season which saw the Lions start off quickly 3-0 only to stumble and lose their next four. A win tomorrow against one of the best teams in the country would give this young Lions team a successful season, something which did not seem possible a few short weeks ago.