If last weekend was about making a statement, this weekend will be about keeping that good feeling alive.

The Penn State women's volleyball team will host the Penn State Classic this weekend as part of its final jump off before Big Ten play opens next week.

At 7:30 tonight in Rec Hall, the No. 2 Nittany Lions will take on Tennessee State. Tomorrow at 10 a.m. they will take on Lehigh and at then 8 p.m. will meet Miami (Ohio) for the nightcap.

"Every team you have to go in and just go in there to win because any time you let your guard down or have an off game there's a chance the momentum can shift and they can start playing well," sophomore outside hitter Nicole Fawcett said. "Any team can upset anyone. You see stuff like that happen all the time."

Still perfect this season (8-0), the Lions will try and remain unbeaten riding the arms of some of the nation's top talent in Fawcett and freshman outside hitter Megan Hodge.

Fawcett is leading the team in a few major offensive categories, including kills per game (4.32) and total kills (121).

Along with Hodge, Fawcett has helped build Penn State's left side attack into a potent threat.

In three preseason tournaments this year both of the young hitters have been named to each All-Tournament team -- once in Louisiana, once here and once in Texas.

Fawcett, called one of the nation's best outside hitters by Texas coach Jerritt Elliott earlier this week, has been named MVP of each of tournament she's played in this year.

Hodge was particularly helpful in powering the Lions past the No. 5 Texas Longhorns last weekend. She notched a career-high 27 kills on .322 hitting.

Despite that big win, the Lions needed to make a late surge to pull it out against the Longhorns. This weekend, freshman setter Alisha Glass hopes that the team can start strong early.

"We had a lot of momentum coming of off last weekend, obviously," Glass said. "And we're going to try and keep that level of play in the third, fourth and fifth game versus the first and second game and try to really start off strong with people instead of waiting and delaying with people."

For her play last weekend, Glass garnered National and Big Ten Player of the Week honors.

"That was a surprise for me, because my first weekend out was a little suspect," she said. "So it was good to come back, especially in such a big match, but it was a team win and our team played really, really well, so I was just happy about that."

Ultimately, what this weekend amounts to for the Lions is three matches in two days. That could make a nice opportunity to posture themselves for the conference schedule.

"This is good to get the momentum going to be ready for Wednesday to play Ohio State," Fawcett said.