Penn State will now have to adjust to changing styles and levels of talent that occur on a nightly basis in the NCAA tournament.

Penn State begins its four-match trek to Long Beach, Calif., and the Final Four with an opening-round match at Rec Hall at 7 tonight against American University (24-6).

The Lions enter the match on an 11-match winning streak, dating back to Oct. 20 when they lost to Ohio State.

During that streak, Penn State has gotten key performances out of Big Ten freshman of the year Kate Price, classmate Melissa Walbridge and senior outside hitter Syndie Nadeau, but Rose believes he has one more card up his sleeve.

"[Senior outside hitter] Ashley Pederson is the trump card for us, if she can get herself back into the condition physically and mentally that we need her to be," Rose said.

"That's the biggest question mark for us. She's now starting a new season, and hopefully she'll be able to focus and give us the effort that we need at out side hitter," he added.

Pederson started the season on the preseason all-Big Ten team and finished it as the second option in the offense behind Price, arguably not the way she envisioned her senior season.

This is American's sixth appearance in the NCAA tournament; the Eagles are winless in their previous five tournament matches.

American enters the tournament winners of 14 of its last 15 matches, including a perfect 13-0 conference record.

A win against American will advance Penn State into the second round of the tournament and a date with the University of Maryland vs. Towson University winner. The Terrapins and the Tigers play their first round match at 5 tonight at Rec Hall.

Maryland finished eighth in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) with a 7-9 conference record and were 17-14 overall. The Terrapins enter the tournament on an extreme high after winning their conference tournament for their second consecutive title. The Terps knocked off ACC No. 2 seed Miami (3-1), third-seeded Duke (3-2) and fifth-seeded North Carolina (3-0) on consecutive days.

The hot streak earned Maryland the conference's automatic bid and gave the ACC two tournament teams (Georgia Tech is the other).

Towson enters this weekend as winners of 12 of its last 13.

If Penn State can survive this weekend, the team will earn a trip to Seattle and a possible showdown with seventh-seeded Washington in the Elite Eight.

The Lions think winning away from Rec Hall shouldn't be a problem.

"I think that our team is a very good road team," junior libero Kaleena Walters said. "We're undefeated so far on the road, so I think that we have a lot of confidence going into the tournament. I think that by winning at [Big Ten foes] Minnesota and Ohio State when we needed to, that gives us a little more confidence."