Lady Laxers to welcome Mt. Hawks

The No. 11 Penn State women's lacrosse team had a unique drill in its practices this week -- "The Star Spangled Banner."

"I'm certainly happy with everybody's new-found intensity out there, but I do see a lot of disconnectedness out there," Lady Lion coach Julie Williams said. "I'm not happy with the way they've been working together."

So in preparation for her team's 1 p.m. game tomorrow at Lehigh (2-1), Williams had her team sing the national anthem as loudly as possible.

"We just need to talk more, and loud," junior midfielder Colleen O'Brien said. "She's stressing that. We're not opening our mouths as much as we should to help each other out."

Williams said the high number of fouls called on her team last week were mostly due to poor communication. For example, the Lions (4-4) were whistled numerous times for having too many people over the restraining line. Williams said her players should have known who was coming and going.

In addition to "The Star Spangled Banner," the Penn State coach also stressed arch defense and moving the ball more in attack situations this week in practice.

- junior midfielder Colleen O'Brien

"Against Princeton, we weren't adjusting and we weren't communicating with each other to know who was supposed to be on each girl," O'Brien said.

Offensively, Penn State was most effective off quick transition goals last week. Williams said she wants her team to do a better job of taking its time around the opponent's net in order to wear down defenses.

"That definitely was missing from our offense," freshman attacker Brooke Bailey said. "We were quick on the transition goals, but we were slow to slow down the offense and set up plays and work their defense."

The Lehigh defense could be a formidable one to work, however.

Mountain Hawk coach Jackie Keeley's team returns all but one of 17 letterwinners from last year's 7-8 squad. Among them are senior Carly Lynch, a first-team regional All-American last season, senior defender Jessica Schmidt, a first-team All-Patriot League member last season, and junior defender Molly Burkhardt.

"I think we're much improved defensively from last year," Keeley said. "I think that's where we have much of our experience."

Keeley said she is looking for her team to dominate draws and groundballs, play solid defense and convert its offensive opportunities against Penn State.

After playing top-notch teams such as No. 2 Princeton, No. 5 Virginia and No. 6 Loyola (Md.) recently, the unranked Mountain Hawks could present a letdown for the Lions. However, Bailey said her team is tired of losing.

"I think our intensity has definitely improved and we won't play down to their level," Bailey said.

At least they'll know the words to the national anthem.