The Penn State Lady Icers will go on the road this weekend to play two games against the Erie Lady Lions, who defeated Penn State this past Saturday 7-3.

The back-to-back games will be held on Saturday at 6:45 p.m. and Sunday at 9:45 a.m.

Erie is a USA Hockey AA Midget 4-19 Amateur team that plays all year long. The travel team plays a variety of teams including some in Canada.

The Lady Lions won the 2000 USA Hockey Pennsylvania Mid-American District State Championship, as well as the PAHL season championship two years in a row.

An interesting aspect of the team is that it is made up of mostly high school-aged girls, the youngest being in eighth grade. These girls play mostly college level teams. Two of the girls, forward Delilah Ball and center Melissa D'Annibale attend Penn State-Behrend.

"We don't think of them that different from any other team we play," Penn State forward Kate Specchio said. "We just play them as if they were another college team."

Penn State is looking to improve in the upcoming games against Erie. Defense is the area they feel needs the most work.

"We just need to work a little on defense and get a little more aggressive and we should be fine," Penn State's Lauren Shaw said.

The Lady Icers will have another defenseman with them in these games that they were missing in the loss on Saturday.

They were shorthanded in the defensive area due to the absence of senior assistant captain Sarah Carey last week, but will have the lines back to where they normally should be this weekend.

Despite the fact that the Lady Icers have a history of losing to the Lady Lions, they enjoyed playing against them in the first game of the season. Shaw said that she considered them one of the only teams that really challenges Penn State.

"We like playing them early in the season," Shaw said. "They help us get organized. Organization is the biggest factor in hockey and we're working on it."