It's a Friday afternoon in the South Gym of Rec Hall, and the Penn State men's volleyball team is trying to squeeze a match into its one-hour practice session. At face value, the team doesn't look too different from last year, with seniors Alex Gutor, Ryan Walthall and sophomore Max Holt in attendance.

The familiar face of Nate Meerstein watching from the trainer's bench on the sideline, however, shows this team is entirely different. Gone are starters Dan O'Dell, Kevin Wentzell and Matt Proper, whose departures stripped the Nittany Lions of their captains and some of their strongest players.

"We obviously graduated four starters from last year, so it's gonna be hard to replace right away," Penn State men's volleyball assistant coach Craig Dyer said. "We are gonna probably take our lumps a little bit. What's encouraging to Coach [Mark Pavlik] and I is that we've seen the team progress from October."

With three preseason matches in the books, the team has only a few weeks left to prepare before it begins its 2007 campaign. The pressure to repeat last year's success weighs heavily on the Lions.

The lineup will be missing some familiar faces, however, their absence has left spots open for new players to blossom.

The upperclassmen filled in most of the holes left by the graduating seniors. In the offseason, the Lions added six new members, five who are freshman. Freshman Max Lipsitz, noticed the hole left by Meerstein and has stepped into this role of middle hitter.

"Max is a pretty physical kid," Dyer said. "He jump touches as one of the highest of our team and I think he's going to develop into a really, really good middle hitter."

Dubbed "junior" by his teammates, Lipsitz's jump touch, or vertical reach, is marked at almost the top of a basketball backboard. His height and physical ability, along with the experience of Holt, should lock up the middle hitter positions for the Lions this season.

"Hopefully, I can develop into somewhere near as good as [Meerstein] was," Lipsitz said. "He was an amazing player and it's definitely beneficial for me to be playing against the other Max. But this year, it's going to be tough."

Except for Lipsitz and Aaron Merges, who will be the backup libero, the other three freshmen will redshirt this season. These freshmen include Jason Ambrose, the 2006 Illinois Player of the Year, Craig Cruise and Alan Mars.

As the new season quickly approaches, all the Lions are trying to rework their mindset. With a new lineup and new starters, the offense and team will be entirely different. This year is going to be a learning process for everyone.

"We still have a long way to go," Mars said. "It's a different offense from last year. We have a smaller team but we are doing pretty good."