Facing two ranked opponents on consecutive Saturdays is a tough task on its own. Add an emotional home game in between, and the task becomes even tougher.

For the second time in a week, the Penn State men's lacrosse team (3-5, 1-1 ECAC) will face a ranked conference opponent when it hosts No. 15 Hobart (5-3, 1-1) at 1 p.m. tomorrow at Jeffrey Field. It will be the Nittany Lions' third game in a week. They lost 18-8 to No. 10 Massachusetts last Saturday, followed by a 14-5 victory against Mount St. Mary's Tuesday night.

The win Tuesday snapped Penn State's four-game losing streak, but the Statesmen pose a tough challenge on both ends of the field. Offensively, Hobart is eighth in the nation in scoring at 11.25 goals per game with three players -- Nate Hill, Daryl Veltman and Chris David -- with 14 goals apiece. Hill also leads the team in assists and points with 14 and 28, respectively. He is in the top 20 in the nation in both assists and points per game. To counter the high-powered offense of the Statesmen, Penn State plans on throwing several different defensive looks at Hill and his mates.

"The whole team is an amazing, athletic offensive team," Penn State coach Glenn Thiel said. "[The Statesmen] control the pace and just shoot, shoot, shoot. Nate is a quick and elusive player. It won't be easy to defend him, but they have more than Nate. We are going to have play many different combinations on defense."

Defensively, Hobart is just as strong. The Statesmen are allowing just 9.38 goals per game, and they have given up 69 less shots than they have taken. Goaltender Dan Valente anchors the defense. He is 20th in the nation with a .583 save percentage. The Lions have had trouble scoring goals all year, averaging just 8.72 per game, so they must be more patient and more accurate on the attack against Hobart.

"Valente is a great goalie," Thiel said. "He can take over a game. We have to shoot better than we have been and get our adrenaline under control."

The marquee match-up will be the battle of the face-offs. Penn State's Greg Gurenlian will be going head-to-head with Hobart's John Soden. Gurenlian is eighth in the nation with a .628 face-off percentage. Soden is 13th at .613. In last year's match-up, an 8-7 Hobart victory, Soden dominated Gurenlian. He won 13 of 17 face-offs while Gurenlian, who is also second in the nation in groundballs per game this year, only managed to win 4 of 11. Whoever wins that match-up could determine who wins the game.

"We're not going to dominate face-offs the way we have been this year," Thiel said. "Soden is real good. He dominated Greg last year, but Greg is definitely looking to get some revenge."

With a chance to get back above .500 in the conference and one step closer to that mark overall, the rest of the Lions are looking for their revenge for the one-goal loss last year.