The Penn State men's tennis team attends its most important tournament this weekend and hopes to come out on top.

It went to the semifinals last year, but finished third in the tournament, losing to Penn 5-2. This year, Penn State is ranked No. 3 going into this tournament and the Lions want revenge. It hopes not only to reach the championships, but also to bring home the big "W" for Penn State.

"We expect to do very well, to even win the tournament if we can, but more importantly to win one match at a time and then go from there," senior co-captain Ryan Berger said.

After last weekend's Penn State Fall Classic, the tennis team looks as though they are ready to go. Playing against St. Bonaventure, Niagara, Army, and Manhattan, Penn State came out on top with a singles record of 29-1, only losing one match to Niagara, leading to a doubles record of 4-0 total. This is an impressive record so far, considering the Lions are adapting to a new head coach, Todd Doebler, who came from Notre Dame at the beginning of the fall semester.

The Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships will held at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing, New York. It is a tournament type of set-up with 16 teams to start with, single elimination and then ending with a championship match on Sunday. Doebler said he thinks there are a lot of teams that are very equal (skill level wise) and if the Lions play well they can compete and, hopefully, play until the end.

This is one of the most important events in the fall season for the tennis team. How they play, not only as a team, but individually, will set the players up for their spring national and regional rankings. Also, the winner of the tournament is guaranteed to get a bid to an early tournament in the beginning of the spring season.

Senior co-captain, Brad Hunter said he hopes that they will be one of the last teams to end the tournament on Sunday. He added: "I feel like last weekend was a great warm-up for this weekend. We want to get it rolling tomorrow and keep it going all weekend long."

Sophomore Adam Slagter played very well last week and is excited to go to the NCAC's. "Everyone is looking good for next weekend," Slagter said.