Last year, Devin Madden told his teammates that he was returning his red-and-white St. John's lacrosse jersey and transferring to one of the team's conference rivals, Penn State.

The trash talking started almost immediately. Madden, a faceoff specialist, knew that, eventually, he'd have to don a blue and white jersey for the Penn State men's lacrosse team and use what he had learned against his former teammates. He wasn't worried.

"It pumped me up," Madden said after practice yesterday.

Madden will get his first chance to put talking aside when he and the Nittany Lions (3-5, 2-2 ECAC) step onto Jeffrey Field at 1 p.m. tomorrow to take on his old team, the Red Storm (4-6, 1-3 ECAC).

"Once everyone knew I was leaving St. John's, they knew I was coming to Penn State, so they automatically thought that this was going to be the biggest game of the season," Madden said.

Madden said the change has been a positive one for him. He wasn't happy on St. John's campus in New York City -- the way he describes it, it wasn't as "comforting" as he now feels University Park is.

"I like the state of New York, but I just didn't like New York City," said Madden, who lists his hometown as Kensington, Md.

Once he decided it was time to get out of New York, he checked out a few different schools. While he was touring Penn State, he visited with an old friend, Bubba Scott, a junior midfielder on the lacrosse team, who is also from Maryland.

"I loved it here the second I got here," Madden said.

By deciding to transfer to Penn State, Madden would also be reunited with two people he knew from his days playing high school lacrosse at Georgetown Prep, Max VanArsdale, a sophomore attacker, and assistant coach Mike Kubic.

Even though knowing some people helped Madden make the transition to Penn State's campus, he struggled a little with faceoffs. In the first four games of the season, Madden won only 14 in 44 attempts before breaking out of his slump in a game last month against Colgate, in which he won 10 of 15 faceoffs.

"He's gotten a lot better this year," Kubic said. "I think one of the things he had a problem with early is, they put so much weight on their sticks, so he was changing his stick almost every day. He had a hard time getting consistency."

When the Lions faced St. John's in 2005, Madden won seven of 15 faceoff attempts for the Red Storm.

Madden said he's been talking to his former teammates all week about the upcoming game. For two years, the members of the Red Storm were the people he hung out with at practice and after class every day. He said he expects tomorrow to be an emotional contest, although the rivalry that remains among he and his former teammates is a good-natured one.

"They keep saying they're gonna knock my legs out -- probably as a joke, but they keep saying stuff," Madden said.