The women's lacrosse team faltered in the second half after holding a four-goal first-half lead and lost to Temple, 10-8, yesterday afternoon in Philadelphia.

The Lady Lions let leads of 6-2, 7-5 and 8-5 slip away during the game as the Lady Owls scored five straight goals, with the game winner scored by Amy Reese on a 12-meter shot. Temple raised its record to 2-0 while the Lady Lions fell to 4-2.

"This was the first game we played an excellent first half and that enabled us to get momentum early -- it usually takes us 10 minutes to get started," Coach Julie Williams said. "In the second half we weren't patient on offense, we weren't chasing ground balls or anticipating overthrows."

Temple was led by Jane Catanzaro with three goals and two assists and Katie Clemmer with four goals and one assist.

"In the first half we did a good job against (Catanzaro). Our plan was to hold her and not check and we got away from that in the second half," Williams said. "We went for the slash and she'll get away from you every time."

Diane Whipple (four goals) and Megan Smith (two goals and four assists) led Penn State.

The Lady Lions outshot Temple, 21-18 with Kay Young stopping six shots.

Penn State opened the scoring when Whipple scored from Faith Sweeney but Clemmer tied the game at 3:09 from Catanzaro. The Lady Lions scored the next three goals to take their advantage to 4-1, with Whipple getting one goal and Smith netting two.

On Smith's first goal, Deanna Blood had an eight-meter shot but as the defense converged on her she passed the ball to Smith for the easy goal.

Temple countered at 19:27 when Catanzaro scored to make it 4-2. The Lady Lions were not fazed, however, and scored the next two goals to push the lead to 6-2. Mary Beth McNicholas and Blood got the goals and the Lady Lions had their biggest lead.

Temple scored the next three goals to cut the lead to 6-5. Catanzaro netted two and Monique Scally had one. But just as the first half buzzer sounded Whipple scored to give Penn State a 7-5 advantage.

In the first half Penn State controlled seven of the 12 draws leading to their first half advantage.

Whipple opened the second half scoring at 27:51 with an assist from Smith to lengthen Penn State's lead to 8-5, but the Lady Lions were held scoreless for the rest of the game.

Two goals by Clemmer and one by Amy McLaughlin from Catanzaro tied the game, 8-8 at the 39:26 mark.

Then at 49:36 Reese scored for Temple's first lead; the Lady Owls would never trail again. Clemmer's fourth goal at 47:20 put the nail in the coffin for the Lady Lions. Temple stalled for the final 2:20 and got the 10-8 victory.

Penn State will now have to regroup for two home matches against Virginia and William & Mary at home this weekend.

"This game gives us an incredible boost --now we know we can rise to play good teams like that," Williams said. "But we have to be aware of consistency we didn't stick to the game plan today."

LADY LAX FAX: Temple's home unbeaten streak now stands at 35 games. . . Lady Lion Mary Ann Foley did not play. . .