It was a long meet for the women's swimming and diving team when it faced No. 8 Virginia on Saturday in McCoy Natatorium.

The Lady Lions came into the meet with a nine-meet winning streak but came out with only four first places in a 165.5-132.5 loss to Virginia (6-0).

Virginia coach Mark Berenardino predicted that the meet would be decided in the last few events, but after winning the first event his team never lost the lead.

"Every time we came up with a great swim they knocked us down," Coach Bob Krimmel said. "They were the best team we've swam this year."

"It was a tough meet because we got behind and stayed behind," co-captain Kathleen Dick said. "We were swimming good times but still getting beat."

The meet started with a heated 400 medley relay. The Lady Cavaliers and Lady Lions were neck and neck the whole race, but the Lady Cavaliers touched out the Lady Lions to win by .03 second, 3:57.21 to 3:57.24.

Virginia won the first four events -- the 400 medley relay, 1,000 freestyle, 200 freestyle and the 100 backstroke. But the Lady Lions kept the meet close with second and third place finishes by Kristin Lilly, Jill Fretz, Suzanne Sloan, Heather Nicholson and Lori Williams.

The Lady Lions finally won an event when Dick took first place in the 100 breaststroke, bringing the team within 13 points of Virginia. Dick had been touched out in the last several meets and has not finished first in the event since October.

In the next event, the 200 butterfly, freshman Jennifer Wilson (2:06.27) was touched out by .15, losing to Virginia's Michele Walter (2:06.12). Wilson continued to dominate in the 100 fly, however, winning in 58.48.

Virginia continued to win, taking the 200 fly, 50 free, one-meter diving, 100 free and 200 backstroke in succession to open a 35-point lead.

Megan Smothergill won the team's second event, placing first in the 200 breaststroke in 2:24.45. Dick came in second with 2:25.51. Lilly was touched out in the 500 freestyle, after a close race with Virginia's Karen Burgess.

Virginia then won the three-meter diving and the 400 individual medley.

Before the meet the Lady Cavaliers agreed to swim the 400 IM instead of the 200 IM. Many schools are wary of swimming the 400 IM, but the event is swum at the Eastern Championships and Krimmel wanted his team to swim it in competition. The Lady Cavaliers finished first, second and third to sweep the Lady Lions.

Penn State won the final event, the 400 free relay. However, Berenardino entered his swimmers as exhibition, which means that their finishes wouldn't count. The Lady Cavaliers finished first, second and third, but the Lady Lions came up with the points.

"I actually prefer that they don't do that," Krimmel said. "His kids won the relay and people should know that."

Krimmel cited several positive points of the meet, including Sloan's performance in the 200 and 500 free and in the 400 free relay. Krimmel also spoke of his pride of the seniors' leadership during the course of the meet.

"Leadership is one of the key roles seniors can play," he said. "They pulled everyone together. Their maturity and leadership will help us down the road. They're good role models."

During the one-meter diving break, Dick and the seniors held a team meeting.

"We tried to get them going again," Dick said. "They reacted really well. It was disappointing at the beginning, but they didn't let it get them down."

"They really wanted to keep our spirits up," Fran McDermid said. "They helped a lot."

"They kept us up through the meet," Wilson said. "They were supportive like they've been all year."

The Lady Lions next meet is against Brown at 1 p.m. Sunday in the Natatorium. This will complete their January schedule, which also included Pitt and Princeton.

"As a team we're better than we were when we came in," Krimmel said. "We've given them a real tough January competition-wise. If they can go 3-for-4 in January they deserve a pat on the back."

"Every week in January we've had to challenge ourselves," Wilson said. "Virginia just added to the challenge. It was a good meet to prepare for Easterns."