It was a record breaking performance for the women's lacrosse team yesterday as it thrashed, crashed and bashed Division II Shippensburg University 31-4 at Lady Lion Field.

The 31 goals tied the most goals ever at Lady Lion Field and fell one short of the all-time school record set in 1983 against Lock Haven. Midfielder Diane Whipple scored six goals and had three assists. Her sixth goal was the 100th of her career, and she became the 12th Lady Lion to register 100 career goals.

"If I'm going to get 100, I want to get it on my home field," Whipple said.

Megan Smith also turned in a record-setting performance with seven assists. The seventh assist broke the Lady Lion Field record and was only one short of the all-time school record set by Marsha Florio against Princeton in 1985. Smith also added two goals.

"It was a shaky start, it took a good 15 minutes to start to feel comfortable," Coach Julie Williams said. "The second half was wonderful to watch;it was a step in the right direction."

"There's a big difference between the two teams," Shippensburg coach Debbie Tweed said. "They just have a tradition in lacrosse; all around they are very confident in their skills and play as a whole."

Penn State upped its record to 3-1 as Shippensburg fell to 1-1. The Lady Lions will now face some stiffer competition with two away games against Colgate on Sunday and Temple on Tuesday.

The Lady Lions started the game off strong as Karen Brown (four goals) opened up the scoring at 1:18.

Amazingly enough, Shippensburg countered at 1:51 as Sandra Pierce cut through three Penn State players and scored. But Penn State would not tolerate any Lady Raider offensive attack yesterday and scored the next 12 goals.

Whipple scored her first of the game at 3:41 to make the score 3-1 and had her second goal when Megan Smith found her cutting across the goal for an easy one.

By the time Elena Brazer (three goals) had her second goal of the game at 15:53, the Lady Lions led 13-1 on goals from Karen Hoysted (five), two more from Brown, two from Mary Beth McNicholas and one from Faith Sweeney.

The Lady Lions weren't done, though, they got two more goals from Whipple and one each from Smith and Brazer. With that barrage, Penn State took a comfortable 14-3 lead into the half.

Against the weaker Lady Raiders, Penn State got a chance to fine tune its offense, with the majority of the goals being scored with the offense setting up behind the net and finding the open Lady Lions cutting to the net.

"At halftime Julie said if we had the fastbreak to take it but if we didn't to pull it out," Smith said.

Smith added she was pleased that the team had the patience to work the offensive attack without impunity.

More of the same continued in the second half as the Lady Lions netted 14 more goals with Whipple getting her 100th from an assist by Smith. Mary Ann Foley saw her first action of the year and scored two goals.