This weekend the Penn State women's water polo club team will take to the pool to compete for the Mid-Atlantic division title and a trip to contend for the national title. The Nittany Lions earned the division's No. 1 seed and will square off against fourth-seeded West Chester University at 10 a.m. tomorrow and fifth-seeded Bloomsburg University at 4 p.m. tomorrow at McCoy Natatorium.

Tomorrow's tournament action is divided into two brackets, A and B. Penn State, West Chester and Bloomsburg will compete in the A group, while second-seeded Pennsylvania and third-seeded Indiana University of Pennsylvania make up bracket B.

The Lions have already defeated every team in each bracket, finishing the season with a 7-1 record in division play. The team's only loss was a 4-3 defeat at the hands of Penn.

If the Lions finish first in bracket A they will move on to the championship game at 10:45 a.m. Sunday at McCoy. If the team does not finish first in its bracket, it will play at 9:45 a.m. Sunday in the third-place game.

After the waves settle on Sunday, the winning school will head to Texas A&M to play against the 12 other division champions from the Collegiate Water Polo Association. In total, 16 teams will vie for the national championship beginning on May 6.

"This is the year," co-captain Nicole Woomer said. "We've really grown together as a team."

The team is officially a club sport and is made up of individuals of all ability levels and interests.

"The team is what we want it to be. The neat thing about the club is that you have girls with all kinds of experience. It is really nice to have the experienced girls working with the inexperienced ones," Woomer said.

In fact, the team does not even have an official coach. Woomer's father, Keith Woomer of Reading, volunteers to help coach the team on weekends.

"He helps on the weekends but otherwise during the week I pretty much write the practices," Woomer said. "Everybody gives input on what they think we should be working on. It's a self-motivated team."

Admission to this weekend's games at McCoy Natatorium is free. There will be six games during the tournament's first day of action, starting with Penn State and West Chester.