Most coaches agree that while moral victories are nice for a team's psyche, they won't get you very far come playoff time.

Such was the case with the Penn State men's lacrosse team yesterday.

While head coach Glenn Thiel's squad showed the ability to hang with the big boys and exhibited good team chemistry, it wasn't enough for the Nittany Lions in their season-opening 10-8 loss to No. 11 Notre Dame.

"We knew this was going to be a tough game," Thiel said. "These guys (Notre Dame) came in here nationally ranked but we still expected to win so our guys are a little disappointed."

The Nittany Lions actually had the Fighting Irish on the ropes early.

Senior attacker Eric Wood gave Penn State a 1-0 lead five minutes into the first quarter.

Notre Dame's John Flandina responded two minutes later to knot the game at 1-1.

Wood then exploded for two more goals to give the Nittany Lions a 3-1 lead with six and a half minutes remaining in the first period.

But Wood was charged with a costly celebration penalty after scoring his third goal, which gave the Irish a full minute with a man advantage.

"It just took all the momentum out of us," Thiel said. "You just can't give a team like that an extra man on offense,"

With the man advantage, Todd Ulrich netted a goal to cut Penn State's lead to one.

An offside penalty against the Nittany Lions gave Notre Dame a two-man advantage, which led to a David Ulrich goal that evened the game at 3-3 with 5:09 left in the period.

"I take full responsibility for those two goals," Wood said. "I just wanted to get my team excited. But something like that will never happen again."

Irish senior Chris Young scored just 16 seconds into the second period to give Notre Dame its first lead of the game. Jon Harvey added a goal eight minutes later to extend the Irish lead to 5-3.

But Wood swung the momentum back in Penn State's direction after notching his fourth goal with 2:22 left in the period.

The Nittany Lions kept the ball rolling after halftime as junior Will Driscoll tied the game back up just 57 seconds into the third period.

Senior Randy Kleinman put Penn State back on top two minutes later.

Wood extended the lead to 7-5 with 8:42 left in the period.

Then Notre Dame's Tom Glatzel took over the game by netting three straight goals in just over three minutes to give the lead back to the Irish at 8-7.

Penn State senior Ted Holmes locked the game back up at 8-8, two and a half minutes into the fourth quarter.

But Glatzel thwarted any chance at a Penn State comeback by putting home his fourth goal with 9:53 left in the game.

David Ulrich tickled the twine once again to cap off the game scoring with 3:37 left.

"That was a heck of a game to open with," Notre Dame coach Kevin Corrigan said. "We expected them to make some big runs and lucky for us we had the last one."