State College, Pa. - October 10, 2005 - The Penn State Nittany Lion men's lacrosse team will welcome the Virginia Military Academy and Bellarmine for its annual Fall Tournament. The three-game exhibition slate features games at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. at Multi-Sport Field.

Penn State will battle Bellarmine at 11 a.m., Bellarmine will take on VMI at 1 p.m. and the Nittany Lions will face VMI at 3 p.m. " The squad performed very well two weekends ago in scrimmages vs. UMBC and Syracuse," head coach Glenn Thiel said. "We must now see if we can mix and match units and see if we can play at the same level.

"Bellarmine and VMI are new and unknown squads to us, but regardless, I'm hoping that our defense will improve from the first scrimmages. It is also important that we continue the same intensity level on offense as we finish fall practice."

Penn State is coming off a 2005 campaign that saw it earn a spot in the NCAA Championship Tournament for the second time in three years. The Nittany Lions were 9-6 and were the ECAC Lacrosse regular season co-champions with a 5-1 conference mark.

Penn State returns eight of ten starters and 25 lettermen, including co-captains Nate Whitaker (Great Falls, Va.), Greg Gurenlian (Springfield, Pa.) and Keith Benjamin (Short Hills, N.J.). Whitaker led Penn State in scoring from his attack position with 44 points (31 goals, 13 assists). Gurenlian had a team-best 111 ground balls and a .636 face-off percentage to go along with 10 points. Benjamin was the team's anchor on defense as the 15-game starter had 25 ground balls and led Penn State on defense.