Top Ten Showdown for Lions

It's a program best for Penn State's men's lacrosse team.

The Nittany Lions open their home schedule ranked eighth in the nation.

A top-five foe on Sunday makes for a marquee match up.

With third-ranked Notre Dame coming to Happy Valley this weekend, Holuba Hall will host the first top-ten showdown in the hundred year history of Penn State lacrosse.

The match up, one of the best in the nation this week, marks another step forward for head coach Jeff Tambroni's team.

"It's gotta be exciting for our guys," Tambroni says. "Hopefully it'll bring a little more attention to the sport of lacrosse here in State College. We haven't had a lot of this type of exitement surrounding lacrosse, certainly not in State College. And I think we're hopeful that we're going to do a good job with the opportunity and make the most of it against an extremely good team."

The Nittany Lions see the first five to ten minutes of the game as the most important stretch against the Fighting Irish.

Both Penn State and Notre Dame have shown the ability to score in quick bursts.

"Just to play relaxed and play with a lot of energy and a lot of confidence and we're going to need to do that against Notre Dame," Tambroni says.

The game also pits two of the nation's top goalies, Penn State's Austin Kaut and Notre Dame's John Kemp, against each other.

Both are on the watch list for the Tewaaraton Trophy, lacrosse's equivalent of the Heisman.