The ball just seemed to float out of bounds, over the fences of the tennis courts.

"Come on, just hit the ball," sophomore Ryan Berger muttered to himself as he took a quick, hard practice stroke.

Throughout the rest of the weekend, just hitting the ball seemed to be all the Penn State men's tennis team had to do.

This weekend, the Nittany Lions played in the Penn State Fall Classic at the Penn State Tennis Center.

Rutgers University, Temple University and St. Bonaventure came to town to face each other and the Lions.

The main concern coming into the weekend for the team seemed to be its players' lack of experience.

"These young guys are anxious to play, they want to find out where they stand," Penn State men's tennis coach Jan Bortner said before the weekend.

"They have to understand that this is not junior tennis anymore."

The team, consisting of four freshmen, three sophomores and two juniors seemed to understand the coach's point this weekend.

The Lions dominated the weekend, losing only once throughout the two days of play.

The first day was highlighted by the team not losing a set in its matches against Rutgers and Temple.

Freshman Chris Sherman, seeing his first action of his collegiate career, defeated Temple's Joe Listanski 6-0, 6-1.

In first doubles, juniors Malcolm Scatliffe and Mark Barry defeated their opponents 8-1.

In the afternoon, Bortner stuck with the same lineup and the Lions swept Rutgers as well.

Freshman Michael James also seeing his first day of action won his match 6-2, 6-1.

The freshmen were the talk of the Classic, not losing a match throughout.

"They bring a lot of excitement and spunk to this team," said sophomore Bradley Hunter, on the freshmen.

Hunter did not play during the first day due to his observance of the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur.

James, Sherman and James Dwyer all made their debut over the weekend.

On the second day of the Classic the theme seemed to be, "Let's Get it Done."

The phrase was printed on the back of the players' t-shirts. The Lions seemed to take that to heart.

They almost swept St. Bonaventure with No. 1 singles player Jon Barry suffering the only defeat for the Nittany Lions.

Hunter only lost one game the entire day. Winning in the fourth singles match 6-0, 6-1 and in third doubles match with Chris Sherman 8-0.

"It just felt great to get out there playing some competitive tennis," Hunter said.

St. Bonaventure was frustrated as well, with one player yelling in disgust after a James forehand of his drop shot.

"What else is he going to do," the player yelled to himself.

The final game against St. Bonaventure was the first doubles match where captains Scatliffe and Barry were tied 8-8 going into a tiebreaker.

"Just one more baby, let's step it up," Scatliffe said to Barry.

They went on to win the tiebreaker 7-4 and won the match.

"This was a good test for us; now we are going to prepare for the ECACs," Hunter said.

The ECAC Championships will take place next weekend in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.

The hopes that the new team motto, "Let's Get it Done," will apply for the entire season.

As Berger said they need to "just hit the ball."