As cliché as it may be, the New Jersey Pride players are much like Dorothy coming back from the other side of the rainbow this week, as the team comes home to New Jersey for the first time in 2004, after opening the season with three consecutive road games.

Welcoming the team back to the Garden State is its brand new venue, Sprague Field at Montclair State University. The newly renovated stadium seats 6,000 fans, and is the first venue the Pride has played in that is not a baseball park.

“We are truly excited to be at Montclair State University and at Sprague Field,’’ said Bob Turco, Pride co-owner and general manager. “This is a venue that has everything a lacrosse fan could want. There are now the traditional sight lines and closer-to-the-field feel like we’ve never had before.’’

Traveling to New Jersey for the game is the Philadelphia Barrage, a team the Pride beat back in Week 1, 17-13, in the opening game for that team in its new venue at Villanova University.

The Pride is trying to avoid that same fate against a team they have never lost to in the four seasons of Major League Lacrosse (7-0).

“We are going to go out and play our game like we always do,’’ said Pride head coach Ted Georgalas. “Our guys are prepared, and we know what we have to do.’’

Conspicuously absent from the Pride lineup will be midfielders Austin Garrison and Joe Ghedina, both of whom were hurt in the Week 3 match-up with Baltimore at Invesco Field at Mile High in Denver.

An MRI confirmed on Wednesday that Garrison has a complete tear of his anterior cruciate ligament, which will require season-ending surgery. Ghedina suffered a severe high-ankle sprain, and will miss at least three weeks of the season.

In their places, the Pride activated two of its 2004 Collegiate Draft choices. The first is midfielder Walid Hajj, a 1st-Team All-America selection out of Georgetown. Hajj scored 37 points in his senior season scoring 24 goals and assisting on 13 others.

The other is face-off midfielder Peter Vlahakis, out of Fairfield University. Vlahakis won 65.4 % of the face-offs he took in 2004 (197-of-304), and will ease the pain of losing Ghedina considerably.

In another roster move, the Pride traded the rights to midfielder Greg Traynor and the team’s first selection in the 2004 Supplemental Draft to the Boston Cannons in exchange for face-off midfielder Eric Wedin.

Wedin is a three-year MLL veteran, who won nearly 60% of the draws he took in 2001 as he led the Long Island Lizards to the MLL Championship. To make room for Wedin on the active roster, the Pride added midfielder Jack Lingo to the 7-man practice squad.

In the first matchup between the two teams, it was Adam Doneger who led the way, scoring five times in his Pride debut. Doneger was acquired in a preseason trade with the Rochester Rattlers that sent A.J. Shannon to upstate New York.

Also contributing was captain Jesse Hubbard, scoring four goals of his own. Goalie Trevor Tierney made 18 saves in stopping the potent attack of the Barrage.