If you happen to be walking somewhere around McCoy Natatorium and Pollock Halls this afternoon, or maybe on Sunday, and you should see tennis balls flying and hear cheers erupting from behind the fenced-in Sarni Tennis Center, don't be scared -- that's what it's for.

The No. 62 Penn State men's tennis team will take the courts at Sarni for the first and only times this year later today and then again Sunday. For their final two home matches, the Nittany Lions (13-5, 2-4 Big Ten) will host Iowa (9-8, 1-5) today and No. 55 Minnesota (6-10, 3-3) on Sunday for Penn State's Parents Weekend.

"Our message all week has been just getting focused on [today's] match, all our attention is on Iowa right now," Penn State coach Jan Bortner said. "We've been trying to emphasize it's about playing with energy and being positive -- positive energy."

Although it is taking things one step at a time, Penn State must have the match with the Golden Gophers, who just last weekend knocked off No. 30 Rice, in the back of its mind -- especially No. 96 Mark Barry's. Barry, the Lions' No. 1 singles player, will take on Avery Ticer, who is ranked No. 34 nationally and is coming off an upset of Rice's (No. 25) Robert Searle.

Barry himself engineered a significant upset last weekend against Ohio State's Joey Atas, ranked No. 53, and had beaten Ticer in a three-set battle during the Big Ten Individual Championships last fall.

"[It] should be a really tough match; he's going to be gunning for me since I beat him in Big Tens," Barry said of his probable match with Ticer. "He's really been on a roll this spring beating a lot of the top players in the country."

The home-court advantage the Lions can benefit from this weekend is a welcome change to all the traveling they have done within the conference as of late. Also, due to scheduling, this will be the only weekend the men's tennis team can utilized its outdoor facilities at the Sarni Tennis Center.

According to Bortner, the Big Ten sends each team a schedule for the season and, barring a conflict, the teams adhere to that schedule. This season the Illini's spring break conflicted with their Big Ten schedule, and the Lions' home match was moved into February, forcing it inside. Bad weather also forced the Lions' only other home conference match, against Purdue, inside. Changes to schedules are difficult as each school is paired with another as its traveling partner -- Penn State and Indiana have been paired up this spring -- meaning the two teams will face the same opponents each weekend, whether it be home or away.

"Since we have travel partners, any change you try to make in your scheduling impacts them as well," Bortner said. "We have Iowa and Minnesota at home this weekend, and Indiana does too, so any change of these dates would involve not just Penn State, but Indiana, Iowa and Minnesota as well."

So it's now or never for the Lions to close out their home season on a positive note, taking advantage of the slow courts of Sarni.

"I'm really happy about it -- I love getting outside, it should be an advantage for us," sophomore Bradley Hunter said. "A lot of Big Ten teams hate playing outdoors, and our courts are slower. We have a lot of grinders on the team, so it can work for us here."

The Lions looked ready for the weekend in practice this week, taking advantage of the great weather to prepare for the two must-win matches. The intensity level was high, even with the Lions nursing two injuries, with freshman James Dwyer's sore hamstring and Malcolm Scatliffe's injured hand.

Bortner even ended Tuesday's practice with a session for the players to practice cheering on their teammates. The Lions shouldn't need much more support however; playing outdoors at Sarni with favorable weather and it being Parents Weekend should bring a lot of spectators out.

"We're going to have a lot of team support [this weekend] -- these are two big matches if we can win both we'll be 4-4 in the Big Ten heading to Michigan and Michigan State," Barry said. "We beat them in each of the last two years, so that could be huge for us in these last two weekends."

A home-court advantage and the prospect of evening up their conference record should be enough to get the Lions going this weekend, and at this stage of the season, "it's time to fish or cut bait," Bortner said.