Just four days after opening the Big Ten season, the No. 51 Penn State men's tennis team is playing out of conference again.

The Nittany Lions (7-1, 1-1 Big Ten) will look to come back from last Sunday's loss to Wisconsin when they serve as host to Bucknell at 6:30 tonight at the Penn State Indoor Tennis Center.

The Patriot League's Bison (3-2, 0-0) are coming off of a weekend series against the University of Buffalo and St. Bonaventure. Buffalo beat the Bison, 6-1, and St. Bonaventure, which Penn State beat, 7-0, two weeks ago, lost to the Bison, 4-3.

Despite the break in Big Ten play (the Lions don't have a conference match until traveling to Michigan March 10), Penn State is looking forward to bouncing back tonight.

"Our guys will be eager to be back on the court after the weekend we had, and I think they'll be fired up to go out and compete again," Penn State head coach Todd Doebler said.

The team will have senior co-captain Bradley Hunter in singles for the first time this season.

Hunter, who missed the first six matches with mononucleosis, teamed with fellow senior captain Ryan Berger in the No. 2 doubles last weekend.

Hunter will likely take the place of junior James Dwyer or freshman Gulliaume St-Maurice for singles.

"I was really, really antsy for four weeks," Hunter said.

"Whenever you've been in the lineup and then you come out, you're eager to get back and contribute to the team. I mean, I try to add a little influx energy into the team by my comeback on the court.

"[Last week's practice] actually helped me immensely. Coach worked me up everyday, playing a little bit more, a little bit more so when I was there in the weekend I wasn't fatigued throughout doubles and I look forward to continuing on doubles and getting back into singles as well."

Doubles, which had been a strong point in the non-conference play, struggled last weekend, though the Lions did get the point against Northwestern.

Against Wisconsin, however, Penn State lost the doubles point and did not win a single doubles match from the Badgers.

"We want to definitely work on solidifying doubles, always improving," Berger said.

"I think that's an area for me personally and the team that we can always improve on," Berger said.

Berger teamed with Hunter and lost both their doubles matches last weekend.

After tonight, the Lions will not play again until a March 4 home match against No. 52 Virginia Tech (7-2, 1-0 ACC).

While Bucknell is not a Big Ten caliber team or of Virginia Tech's talent level, Hunter said that the Bison are no slouches and the Lions need to stay aggressive and "enforce our game."