The Penn State woman's rugby team does not start its official season until the spring semester.

However, it is using the fall semester to grow and learn about the sport and to get more playing experience by facing several tougher women's club teams.

Tomorrow, the Lady Ruggers will face one of those teams.

They will square off against the Maryland Stingers at the Flower Gardens fields on the East side of campus. The A side will kickoff at 2 p.m. and the B side game will follow.

The Stingers, a nationally ranked team, are comprised of women from Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., many of whom are either Penn State graduates or members of the national rugby team. The two teams last met on March 18, 2001, when the Stingers topped the Lady Ruggers, 41-14.

Team members said they expect to see a tough matchup against Maryland, but at the same time anticipate a good, solid game from which they will learn a great deal.

"They'll be at least as competitive as Keystone was last weekend," forward Kirsten Aerts said. "This gets us prepared and helps us to improve the development of the players."

Since Maryland is a women's club team, the Lady Ruggers expect to learn from the older, more experienced team.

"They [Maryland] will come out wanting to teach us how to play rugby since we're just a collegiate level team," second row player Maggie Reed said.

Tomorrow's game will be a building block for future games, such as the team's biggest game of the Fall, the Oct. 5 contest against Navy.

The team has been preparing for its upcoming game by sharpening its defensive and kickoff skills, as well as its counterattack.

"We have started to build the team to prepare for the rest of the season, especially Navy," said head coach Pete Steinberg. "We are becoming more aggressive on defense and need to have the ability to catch kicks and be on the counterattack."

In addition, finding the perfect combination of players has also been an emphasis of the team this week during practice.

"Since this is the beginning of the season, we are trying to find the right combination of where people will work out best," center Katie Gloyer said. "A lot of us can play different positions, so it's all about seeing what options we have."

Above all, the Lady Ruggers will get a feel for where they stand in the season, as well as getting a chance to get more high-paced playing experience.

"This game will measure where we are in the season and give the rookies a chance to step up and play at a higher level," flyhalf Jenny Lui said. "The game might be a little more slow than last weekend, but it will definitely still be difficult."