Coming into Saturday's meet with Northwestern, the women's swimming and diving team knew that defeating the No. 10 team in the nation would be difficult.

But the No. 23 Lady Lions might not have known that victory would depend on winning the last two events of the meet.

The Lady Lions defeated the Wildcats by a 151-149 score -- the narrowest margin of victory possible in women's swimming and diving. In addition to Northwestern (4-4, 2-2 Big Ten), Penn State (9-1, 6-1) also defeated Indiana (3-5, 2-4) 209-91.

"Unbeliveable," Penn State Coach Bob Krimmel said. "In my 14 years of coaching, I've never had a 151-149 meet before.

"I don't think I've ever been shocked at the outcome of a meet -- and I don't want that to sound like I didn't have faith in our kids because I did -- but I was disappointed in the first half of the meet."

The Lady Lions capped off their weekend with a 162-116 victory at Pitt yeaterday. But it was Saturday's meet that was the highlight of the weekend.

The Lady Lions stayed with the Wildcats long enough to ensure that the meet would depend on the final event -- the 400-yard freestyle relay.

In that race, the Lady Lion team of Deni Rudy, Sarah Duttera, Karen Van Tassel and Carmen Kondra took first place by defeating Northwestern by the slimmest of margins -- 3:26.44 to 3:26.62.

Penn State's other relay team (Wendy Rowe, Carol Girvin, Jenn Davis and Ashley Hyneman) placed third. By scoring 13 points to Northwestern's four in that event, Penn State took the two-point victory.

But it was freshman Karna Lorhammer's win in the 200 IM which gave Penn State the opportunity to win the meet. In that race -- the last before the 400 free -- Lorhammer won by over a second.

Teammate Amy Holt took fifth as the two Lady Lions earned 10 points, putting Penn State behind by seven heading into the final relay.

"We really wanted this win," Lorhammer said. "Northwestern is a really big rival. I think coming in we knew we could beat them -- we wanted to beat them really badly. It was like we were saying, 'We're not giving up, we're not going to let them take this away from us.' "

Penn State trailed the entire meet before pulling ahead. Along the way, victories by many Lady Lions paved the way for the upset.

Key performances were turned in by sophomore Erika Georgs, who won both the 1- and 3-meter diving events, and sophomore Tiffany Crandell, who took the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke events.

In the anchor leg of the 400 free relay, Penn State freshman sensation Kondra came through. Despite starting her swim about a full-body length behind Northwestern's Joy Stover, Kondra was able to come back and out-touch Stover by .18 seconds.

"I was nervous, but I'm a relay swimmer, so I swim better for the team," Kondra said. "And I knew I was capable of it, and when you have that much support behind you, it's hard to let them down . . . I knew I had a strong last 50."

For first-year Northwestern Coach Jimmy Tierney, traveling to University Park for the first time and losing such a close meet must have been disappointing. But showing true sportsmanship, he accepted the defeat gracefully.

"It was a great meet," Tierney said. "I thought Penn State did a terrific job and they just put more points on the board than we did. I have no complaints, I thought we did a good job today."