The Owls have improved dramatically in recent years, finishing second in the Atlantic 10 Conference last year and advancing to the conference title game before falling to Richmond.
In contrast to the youthful Lions, Temple comes in with much of its starting roster intact from 2003, including three of the team's top four scorers.
Penn State is coming off a weekend of mixed results. The Lions won their first game of the season Saturday, 2-0 against James Madison, but ran into a powerful North Carolina squad on Sunday, losing 2-1.
In the first national poll released yesterday by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association, the 1-4 Lions just cracked the top 20 and are tied with Northwestern for 19th place.
The team can take some solace in the fact that all of their losses thus far have come to teams ranked in the top 10. North Carolina is ranked No 3., with UConn, Old Dominion and Northeastern taking spots six through eight.
Another positive heading into today's game for the Lions is the play of goalkeeper Megan Akstin. She was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week after her weekend performance. In addition to recording her first ever shutout as a Nittany Lion Saturday, the Albany transfer survived a flurry of shots from North Carolina Sunday afternoon, allowing only two goals. Penn State was outshot 19-5 by the Tar Heels.
"She's been playing great, she's really stepped up and done a great job," said senior co-captain Amanda Eckert. "We hope that she can keep it up."
Coach Char Morett has been thrilled with Akstin's play. She also believes that the strong play of the defense has helped with her goaltender's success.
"Megan is a very instinctive goalie, she just has tremendous natural reactions," Morett said. "The defense has really helped her feel more confident."
While the coach is content with the play on the back end, she was disappointed with the team's effort Sunday. Even with some early losses to start the season, this is the first time Morett has questioned her team's effort.
"Our efforts on the field were very individual [Sunday]," Morett said. "We didn't play with competitive spirit, and as the home team I can't understand that."
After two drastically different showings, both Morett and Penn State fans alike will be anxious to see which Lions' team will show up this afternoon against Temple.
"We played so well on Friday against James Madison," Morett said. "I'm hopeful that we can play together as a team, both offensively and defensively."
