Old Dominion. Tomorrow. A showdown, on the Holuba Hall turf at noon.

The No. 1 undefeated Lady Monarchs come to Penn State tomorrow riding high on a 52-game winning streak and the No. 3 Lady Lions are preparing to bring that streak to a roaring halt.

“We’ve got them at home, and we’re going to go at them with everything we’ve got,” Coach Char Morett said. “We’ve got nothing to lose.”

The ODU wrecking ball has been known to crash down on opponent’s offenses, while trouncing their defense.

“We just don’t care who they are,” said senior co-captian Jen Stewart. “They could be aliens, it doesn’t matter. We are playing to win and that is what we are going to do.”

And the Lady Lions have vivid memories of last year’s 5-2 trouncing down in Norfolk, Va. This year’s game won’t be any easier for Penn State.

Lady Monarch goalkeepers have 14 shutouts this season, while their attack has outscored opponents by an astounding 113-2. ODU has run-up over 10 goals in a match three times this season against unranked opponents — their highest output was a 14 goal ego-booster against 0-4-1 Stanford. It seems that no victory is too small for those mighty Lady Monarchs down in Norfolk.

“Why embarrass a team when everybody already knows you’re good,” Sharon Kuntz said. “Is a 14-0 win any better than a 3-0 win? Doing that doesn’t prove anything.”

Kirt Bennedict agreed. “It just isn’t fair to run up a score like that,” she said. “It ruins the competition. A win is a win.”

ODU is not anticipating such an easy victory over Penn State, and knows it will have to work to keep with the Lady Lions.

“Penn State will be one of our toughest games,” said ODU wing Dina Borrelli. “It is a very big game for both teams, and we’re going to have to stick to our game.”

ODU Coach Beth Anders refused to comment on the game, and has since told her team not to discuss anything with the media until further notice.

The Lady Lions, at No. 3, will be the highest ranked team to face No. 1 Old Dominion (16-0). Earlier this season ODU beat Maryland, who was ranked No. 3 at the time, but since has fallen to No. 9.

Kelli James leads the potent Lady Monarch’s in points with 24 goals and 40 assists followed by Jill Reeve who has two goals and 39 assists. Laura Knorr leads the team with 26 goals and Maaike Hibrand has 25. The stats, however, drop off significantly after those four players, and it shows that Anders doesn’t uses substitutions often during a game.

A quick look at the Lady Lion stats, however, shows they utilize a lot of substitutions. This depth means Morrett can call on a set of fresh legs and count on the quality of play to remain at a high level.

“At any time you can pick any one of the girls off of the bench and know that they are going to get the job done.” Stewart said. “Everybody is ready to go in at any given time. We have been playing well the past few games, and when we’re doing good, everybody is up.”

Right now, the Lady Lions are playing an emotional brand of field hockey that could be difficult to match by a team, who has yet to be challenged.

Penn State has proved worthy to challenges from higher ranked teams, and has matched strides with No. 2 Iowa twice already.

Morett feels that despite losing to Iowa in both meetings, the lessons learned were the most important aspects.

“It takes a good challenge to help a team find what it needs to improve,” Morett said.

She feels her team knows what it is capable of doing, and what it needs to do before tomorrow’s ODU game.

“I was very pleased with the play last weekend,” Morett said, “and I would like to see it carry over to Old Dominion. We want to jump on them early, and keep them down.”

Kuntz agreed that Penn State has been playing solid hockey, and feels that the Lady Lions are the team to crush the ODU wrecking ball.

“If anybody is going to beat Old Dominion, it is going to be us,” Kuntz said.