With just four matches remaining, the No. 54 Penn State men's tennis team could be on the verge of a historical Big Ten season.

The Nittany Lions (13-3, 3-3 Big Ten) have put themselves in position to top last season's 5-5 conference standing, the best since 1993, when they finished fourth. If they can finish out the same way they did last year, going 3-1 in their final two weekends, they will set a school mark with a 6-4 Big Ten record.

Even a split would at least tie last year's finish -- but is that enough to achieve the season's goal of reaching the NCAA Team Championships?

"We're trying to finish 7-3, that's our goal," senior co-captain Malcolm Scatliffe said.

If the Lions could win out, with wins against No. 39 Minnesota and Iowa this weekend and then next weekend against Michigan State and Michigan, they would finish at 7-3. Assuming No. 34 Michigan (5-2) also wins out, except against the Lions, it would put Penn State at No. 4 in the conference and in a good position to reach its goal of making the national championships.

"We've talked about it a little bit, we've been trying to remind the guys that to go 6-4 would increase our chances of possibly going to the NCAA tournament," first-year Penn State head coach Bill Potoczny said. "What we're trying not to do is look past anybody."

The team's next four matches give them a definite opportunity to make history.

"We feel like it's definitely possible, we just need four more solid efforts," junior Brad Hunter said about finishing 6-4 in the Big Ten.

The Lions got into the position to improve on last year's record by putting in more of those consistent winning efforts. On March 31, they were finally able to defeat Northwestern, a feat they had not achieved since their present head coach came to Penn State six seasons ago.

"Over the past few years, we've come up just short in those matches that would have put us over the edge and put us up there with the elite of the Big Ten," Hunter said. "We still have four more tough teams, two of them are ranked above us, and to achieve that we need a good effort to put us into the upper echelon of the Big Ten."

The key for the Lions during the past two seasons has been beating teams they are supposed to beat.

"If we do that, you can say mission accomplished, by beating most of the teams we feel we should -- but obviously in the Big Ten, everyone is competitive," Potoczny said. "Last year we went 5-5, but with a little luck we could have been 8-2. But then with a little bad luck we could have been 2-8. So it's not always about being the best team, it's about who is having a good day or who is being able to find a way to win if they have a bad day."

At this point, finding a way to win in at least three of their last four games will determine whether the Lions can make history on their way to reaching the NCAAs. Or, as Potoczny said, they could go 0-4 if the Lions are caught daydreaming too much about reaching that goal.