Tricia Lehman and her brother Steve used to play tennis together in the backyard. Now, they are competing at the Division I level at Penn State.

Steve Lehman came to Penn State in the fall of 1991 on a lacrosse scholarship. His sister Tricia arrived one year later on a tennis scholarship.

Tennis is the passion of the Lehman family. Steve and Tricia's parents, Al and Jean, began introducing rackets and balls at an early age. Tricia, Steve and older brothers Dan and Peter would accompany Mom and Dad to the courts and hit balls that they threw to them.

Tennis is the sport of the Lehman family, so why is Steve playing lacrosse? According to Tricia, Steve took up lacrosse following a friendly match the two had in their backyard court.

"The day I beat him, he quit tennis and picked up lacrosse," Tricia said.

For his part, Steve remembers the day as being one of the more traumatic experiences of his childhood.

"I ran upstairs into the house and said 'I quit,' " he said. "My mom was like 'Steve, calm down.' "

Steve said he dropped tennis partly because it required too much control. That and the fact that he broke too many rackets while playing.

Steve wasted no time before he signed up for a newly formed lacrosse program in his community. His parents were less than thrilled when he first started playing lacrosse because they always wanted him to play tennis. They were skeptical because lacrosse was more of a contact sport, but the more Steve excelled the more he said his parents liked the sport.

Tricia and Steve agree that the closeness of their family helped contribute to their success in athletics. Tricia was adopted at infancy and Steve said he can't remember a day without her. The two often get together at their grandparents' house in State College for a home-cooked meal.

"It's nice to get away every once in a while," Tricia said.

Their parents may have contributed to Steve and Tricia's love of sports, but they especially influenced their decision to attend Penn State.

"Unless you had a good reason not to, you went to Penn State," Steve said.

Al Lehman attended the University and Jean worked for a dean at the school, so Penn State became a Lehman family tradition.

Steve started for the Conestoga High School varsity lacrosse team as a freshman and became and All-American his senior year. During his freshman year at the University, he was redshirted due to a hamstring injury.

Tricia started for Conestoga's tennis team all four years under Coach Fran Schecter. In her senior year, she won the Pennsylvania state tournament in doubles and competed in national tournaments in California, Michigan and Virginia. In her first tournament at Penn State, she finished first in the third doubles flight.

Steve and Tricia enjoy matching up against each other in the backyard during the summer but Steve would still like to redeem himself from his loss when they were younger.

"I could probably still take her," Steve said.