Last weekend's 5-2 victory against Minnesota had the then-No. 62 Penn State men's tennis team thinking they would be firmly "on the bubble" for the NCAA Championships.

That is, if they continued with their winning ways this weekend.

However, when the new rankings were released, the Nittany Lions (15-5, 4-4 Big Ten) only climbed three spots, and this weekend's matches against Michigan State and No. 64 Michigan are now even more important -- two must- win matches to close out the regular season.

"Our destiny is in our own hands," junior Malcolm Scatliffe said.

"If we win these two matches, there's no reason why we shouldn't move up in the rankings, and then we just have to take care of it ourselves."

Winning out against the Spartans (12-10, 4-4) tomorrow and the No. 64 Wolverines (12-9, 5-3) Sunday, could propel the Lions to the No. 4 seed for the upcoming Big Ten Championships, which would garner a first-round bye in the tournament, a big advantage on the road to NCAAs.

Once again, the key for the Lions is the doubles point, but by finally getting that monkey off their back against Iowa last Friday, this could be the weekend that they finally put it all together.

"We're going to step it up in dubs, we're going to take what we did [last] weekend and hopefully build on that," sophomore Bradley Hunter said.

"The other doubles teams are a point away from winning their matches, so I don't see why we can't all win this time."

This weekend, getting that extra point may be even a little bit harder, as the Michigan and Michigan State sides both feature nationally-ranked doubles pairings.

At No. 1 doubles, Scatliffe and No. 1 singles player Mark Barry must be on top of their game to give the Lions that important first point on the road.

Also for a team that has had great success playing outdoors, Mother Nature might have a hurdle for the Lions as well.

With temperatures in Michigan being predicted in the 30s for the weekend and a chance of snow and rain on both days, the matches could be forced indoors.

And at this point in the season, with so much on the line, there are no excuses.

"Either outside or inside, if we play our match, with our gameplan, we'll take care of business and win," Berger, a Michigan native, said.

Rankings, location, weather and home-court advantage aside, the Lions are on the doorstep of a weekend that could result in one of their best Big Ten seasons in the current decade. With the chance to go 6-4 in conference, the Lions could be on their way to their first NCAA appearance since 1999.