After starting off with two disappointing splits on the road, the Penn State softball team looks to get back on track when it opens up its home Big Ten Schedule this weekend against Illinois, which kicks off the weekend at 6 tonight at Nittany Lion Field, and Iowa.

The Hawkeyes (33-9, 4-4 Big Ten) and Illini (0-8, 18-20) are on two completely different ends of the Big Ten spectrum.

Iowa comes into Happy Valley as winners of four of its last five, including three of its last four Big Ten games.

The Hawkeyes pitchers have been tremendous of late, recording three consecutive shutouts, twice against Indiana and once against William Penn. Iowa's dynamic duo of junior right-handed pitcher Ali Arnold (13-2) and senior right-handed pitcher Lisa Birocci (19-7) combined to strike out 21 Hoosiers and allowed only four batters to reach base (three hits and a walk). The two aces have a combined 1.37 ERA and opponents are hitting .184 against them in 270 2/3 innings pitched.

Birocci and Arnold will be a huge test for a hot Penn State lineup. The Nittany Lions (25-14, 3-3) are third in the Big Ten in hitting with a sparkling .313 team batting average, which is almost a .100 point improvement over last season's conference low .225.

A major reason for Penn State's improvement has been the consistency of the top three hitters. Freshman shortstop Jen Acunto (.414), sophomore right fielder Meghan Wolfer (.342) and freshman pitcher/first baseman Ashley Esparza (.437) own the top three averages on the team.

The success of those three has allowed freshman cleanup hitter Hollee Haines and junior center fielder Leigh Murray to quietly, without pressure, knock in a whole lot of runs -- 23 each.

"We know we're going to score a whole lot of runs. Last year we put too much pressure on our defense," Murray said. "Our defense has been really well this year ... so we know teams will have to score runs on us to win."

Before the possibly epic doubleheader Sunday, Penn State will face Big Ten cellar dweller Illinois today and tomorrow. The Illini have fell off tremendously from last year's 45-21 second-place conference finish and now sit two games under .500.

The Illini pitching has been the team's down fall this season. Illinois' top two pitchers are sophomore left-hander Mary Miller and freshman right-hander Claire DeVreese, and both have struggled. Miller (12-9) has a 3.56 ERA and 89 strikeouts in 135 innings pitched. On the other hand, DeVreese (4-9) hasn't fared much better. She is the owner of a plus-4.00 ERA (4.42), but DeVreese is a solid strikeout pitcher (5.23 per seven).