Nate Whitaker is in the midst of this little streak in which he has had a hand in at least one point the Penn State men's lacrosse team has scored in its last 37 games.

In the past, or more specifically, at the conclusion of game 27 of the streak, the junior attackman said it was "seriously overrated."

Whether he was just being modest is uncertain, but a streak like that is surely impressive.

"I'm on the field a lot so I end up scoring with an assist or a goal someplace," Whitaker said. "But that's not on my mind right now."

What is on his mind is helping the Nittany Lions (5-5, 3-1, ECAC) win their first road game of the season at 7:30 tonight when they travel to No. 12 Bucknell for a non-conference game in Lewistown.

"The main thing we have to do is be mentally prepared. Bucknell is a team that we killed in the fall, we killed last year and we are hot right now," Whitaker said.

The Lions are riding a three-game winning streak in which they are averaging 15 goals a game and out-hustling their opponents by scooping almost eight more groundballs. Penn State coach Glenn Thiel attributes a good portion of that success to the wingmen who play alongside the leading faceoff man in the ECAC, Greg Gurenlian. This is crucial because whichever team wins the majority of faceoffs and groundballs increases its scoring opportunities while limiting offensive possessions for the opposition.

"Earlier in the year we weren't getting help from those guys, I mean, Gurenlian wins a lot himself and then you get a little complacent sometimes. Jesse [Tarr] has played much better this year than he's played all the other years, he's getting more groundballs, he's not fouling as much, [and] he is doing more things in the open field. We're getting much better on the wings, I like that," Thiel said.

The Lions met the Bison twice last year, winning both games fairly comfortably. The two teams last met in the fall when Penn State hosted its 29th Annual Fall Tournament at the Multi-Sport Complex, with the Lions winning that game, 11-2.

But a lot has changed since then; the Lions have surely had their struggles and the Bison are currently 7-3 and headed toward postseason play.

"They're having a great season and they're looking towards the playoffs so we'll have our hands full. It's always a real good rivalry, it should be a great game," Thiel said.

"The next four games are all top-ranked teams and very good. We'll have our hands full."

As for Whitaker, the streak is the furthest thing from his mind, he just wants the opportunity to send his Lions to the NCAA tournament for only the second time ever. And anything else on the agenda could be detrimental to his team.

"It's easy to maybe look past them because it's a middle of the week game and we got a big ECAC game against Rutgers on next Saturday ... it'll be a mental thing, we gotta come mentally prepared," Whitaker said.