The Lady Lion swimming and diving team celebrated with pizza and soda after Saturday's 151-149 victory over No. 10 Northwestern.

But the celebration did not last long. Outside McCoy Natatorium sat the bus that would take the Lady Lions to Pittsburgh to face the Panthers on Sunday.

Battling the fatigue and emotion of the Northwestern triumph, Penn State completed its weekend with a victory. The No. 23 Lady Lions (9-1) defeated Pitt (2-7) by a 162-116 score, less than 24 hours after beating Northwestern and Indiana (209-91).

"It was tough, but we did it," Coach Bob Krimmel said of the Lady Lions' victory over Pitt. "In terms of the program, it was one of the most successful weekends we've had. To beat a great Northwestern team and then defeat a traditional rival like Pitt the next day is wonderful."

Considering Penn State teams are historically stronger than Pitt squads -- Penn State owns a 12-8 all-time record versus Pitt in women's swimming -- and considering the Big Ten Championships are less than four weeks away, Krimmel used Sunday's meet to see swimmers compete in different events.

Senior Deni Rudy, who usually swims the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events, instead swam the 200 free against the Panthers and won. Lady Lion backstrokers Lisa Pastrana and Jennifer Davis did not swim in either the 100 or 200 backstoke races; rather, Davis finished sixth in the 50 free and Pastrana won the 100 butterfly.

"I definitely am more experienced with the 50 and 100 (free) --they are the events I'm best at," said Rudy, a native of Newark, Del. "But I'm going to swim the 200 (free) at Big Tens, so I needed to get times and experience."

Veteran swimmers like Rudy were able to test themselves in preparation for the conference championships and younger swimmers like freshman Elissa Belliars and sophomore Tiffany Crandell were able to gain valuable experience in other events.

Unlike last weekend, the Lady Lions will have more than several hours to rest and prepare for their next competition. They have next weekend off before welcoming the Villanova Wildcats to McCoy Natatorium on Feb. 4. But for at least one Lady Lion, the time between meets might be too long.

"I like to have a meet every weekend," co-captain Rudy said. "Of course, it's nice to have a break and it's nice to have time to catch up on studies. But I like to have meets relatively close together."