Returning to State College after only a week of semester break, the women's swimming and diving team rolled to 10 first-place finishes in an impressive 180-112 victory over Princeton on Friday. The Lady Lions now have an 8-1 record.

"Breaks are incredible," junior Kristin Lilly said. "The team splits up and we go our separate ways. When we got back things clicked -- just in time for Princeton."

Princeton is ranked 22nd nationally and second in the East. The Lady Lions are ranked 25th in the nation and tied for third in the East with Pittsburgh. The new national poll will not come out until Jan. 15 and the East poll will not come out until the end of the month.

The meet was neck-and-neck until the Lady Lions surprised the Lady Tigers in the 50-yard freestyle. Freshman Fran McDermid won in 24.1 and Heather Nicholson finished second in 24.4. On paper, Princeton was stronger in the event, Coach Bob Krimmel said.

In the next event, the one-meter diving, the Lady Lions swept Princeton. Amy Schmidt won and made the NCAA pre-qualifying round. Lara von Seelen and Kristin Tressler finished second and third, respectively.

Von Seelen competed on both the one-meter and three-meter boards for the first time this season and qualified for NCAAs on both boards. Von Seelen had been sidelined with a hand injury which kept her off the higher board.

After the one-meter the Lady Lions swept the 100-yard free. McDermid again led the pack to capture her third win of the meet, her first triple win at the collegiate level.

Junior Jane Kleiderlein and senior Jill Fretz rounded out the sweep.

"From that point on they folded," Krimmel said.

Freshman Jennifer Wilson, competing with the flu, finished first in the 100 and 200 butterfly events.

Lilly won the 500 free and finished second in the 1,000 and 200 free after swimming them back to back.

"It was very challenging," she said. "The strategy was Krim's idea. I did it because I like challenges."

The Lady Lions face a tough schedule through the rest of January, including Pittsburgh, Virginia and Brown.

"We got our momentum going for January," Lilly said. "After Christmas is a whole new season. We have a great team and a lot of talent. The intensity is incredible."

"The team will be pumped going into the Pittsburgh meet," McDermid said.

"On paper it should have been extremely close," Krimmel said. "I told them, 'The team that wins this is the toughest physically and the toughest mentally.' We swam well as a team, they swam well as individuals . That was the difference."

"There's no relaxing, we have to keep improving as individuals," he added.

The team's next meet is Saturday at 1 p.m. in McCoy Natatorium against Pittsburgh.