The Lehigh women's lacrosse team may be changing its mascot after yesterday's clash with Penn State. Like lambs led to the slaughter, the Engineers (3-2) lost steam as the No. 6 Lady Lions (3-3) showed no mercy in their 18-3 thrashing.

"It's tough on the kids to play a game like that because you don't want to keep pounding the other team into the ground," Coach Julie Williams said. "You don't expect for that to ever happen. It happened today."

The Lady Lions were down 2-1 when they scored the next seven goals, finally ending the half ahead, 9-3. In the second, the Engineers could only manage four shots on goal while a fierce Penn State attack helped net nine goals.

"It was a very slow start for us," Williams said. "We kept getting some nice shots, but nothing was hitting the net."

Then freshman attacker Michelle DeJuliis came to the rescue with the go-ahead goal. She led all scorers with four goals and three assists. Attackers Joanne Connelly and Kara Stockett each added three goals.

"We were pretty good all over the field -- good transition," DeJuliis said. "Now we're just intense for everything."

It wasn't difficult for the Lady Lions to adjust to a comfortable lead. When you're already up by about 10 goals, DeJuliis said, you can be a little creative.

"We still go at it strong -- we can't let up any," she said. "We did set up a lot more plays and worked with the pretty pass for the nice goal."

Williams said lacrosse was just "in the air." That air helped the Lady Lions work a play they had just learned this week in practice to perfection. It was in the middle of the first half when Williams felt comfortable with the game.

"We did work some other things," she said. "We had some really beautiful plays down the field, such good lacrosse. We had much fewer turnovers, and much fewer fouls, too. We were very patient on defense."

Junior attacker Christy Way, freshman midfielder Tamara Crowe and freshman attacker Pigeon Pollard each notched two, while junior attacker Suzanne Weinberg picked up one. Freshman midfielder Allison McCall also added one, tallying her first collegiate goal ever.

"In the second half we were really tough on defense," Williams said. "At that point I had subbed everybody in, and everybody was playing well. It was a good, clean game for us."

Penn State outshot Lehigh 35-16 and held the Engineers scoreless for the final 34 minutes. Senior goalkeeper Patty Kloidt notched 11 saves.