It's a good thing Notre Dame is known as the Fighting Irish because it may need every ounce of fight in it.

In a marquee matchup between the top two fencing programs in the NCAA, the No. 1 Penn State fencing team will travel to No. 2 Notre Dame this weekend. The Nittany (7-0) and Lady Lions (7-0) will also tangle with No. 4 Ohio State, Air Force Academy, Wayne State and California State-Fullerton in a full day of dual meets slated to begin at 9 a.m. tomorrow.

The women's team will also compete in a sixth meet against the Northwestern Wildcats.

This weekend's competition looks to be the most challenging meet of the season for Penn State.

"We're getting into the meet of the season," Penn State fencing coach Emmanuil Kaidanov said. "If you want to get better, you have to face the strongest competition."

Penn State and Notre Dame have been known to be on each others' heels. Last season, the Lions finished just nine points ahead of the Irish at the NCAA tournament, and this season the teams are at it again as they are neck-and-neck in the United States Fencing Coaches Association (USFCA) rankings.

Penn State is cautious of attributing any significance to the rankings, however.

Lions freshman Marten Zagunis, who will be competing in his first meet against Notre Dame, said the team is heading into the weekend with the "underdog" mindset.

"It's a big hurdle, but we're not shy," Zagunis said. "We're going to dive right into it. It's a matter of whether our all is better than what the other teams are giving."

The absence of junior captain Alex Weber will only make the hurdle even more difficult to overcome. Weber is missing this weekend's competition to compete in a World Cup event in Budapest, Hungary.

Zagunis, who is likely to shoulder some of the responsibility for the saber squad in the wake of Weber's absence, has confidence that his teammates will continue to fence as well as they have all season, and perhaps even better.

"There is a heightened sense of pressure, but the team isn't just [Weber]," he said. "I expect everyone will fence the best that they have all season and definitely give [the opponents] a run for their money."

A key factor for the Lions will be the performance of junior All-American Amir Rahimi.

In last weekend's home dual meet, Rahimi was a major contributor to the success of the men's team as he posted a perfect 9-0 mark for the day.

"Without a doubt, he's one of the team's best fencers -- second only to Alex," Zagunis said. "He'll definitely go out fighting. Because he works so hard, he gives a lot of support to the other fencers."

The women's team will have their hands full as they will take on a formidable Ohio State team.

Despite losing the foil and epee bouts, the Ohio State women's fencing team dominated in the saber competition to narrowly upset the Notre Dame women's team last weekend by a score of 15-12.

Buckeye sophomore All-American Louise Bond-Williams, who posted a 42-0 during the 2001-02 season capped by a silver medal-winning performance in the women's saber at the NCAA championships, will lead the charge for another upset.