Victory is sweet, especially when it's the first one of the season.

Penn State women's lacrosse coach Suzanne Weinberg earned her first victory as head coach of the Nittany Lions yesterday against Massachusetts, 11-4, improving the Lions record to 1-2.

"It feels good," Weinberg said. "We took better care of the ball, we shot better, and we played as a team on both ends of the field."

Penn State's Colleen O'Hara scored first to put Penn State on the board and in the lead, 1-0. Massachusetts answered, however, with a goal by Rachel Ingraffea not even a minute later.

"Once they scored, even though we were winning, it was a wakeup call," Sara Young said. "That got us going harder."

Penn State then scored three more goals, two from junior Molly Ford and one from Kristin Wood, to take the lead at the half, 4-1.

"I think in every game it is," Ford said about the importance of starting strong. "But coach talked about it especially before this game because in the JMU (James Madison) game, they came out and got three goals in the first minute and a half. She emphasized that we should get out right away and start things at our pace."

Despite being ahead at the half, Weinberg still saw room for improvement on the offensive end of the field.

"I think what was missing the first half was taking good shots," Weinberg said. "I told them that if they didn't take good shots (the second half) they were coming out of the game. We got the shots the first half, we just didn't take good ones."

So in the second half, the Lions heeded the advice of their coach and came out strong.

In the first five minutes, the Lions added three more goals. Freshman Katie Jeschke and juniors Alison DeCecco and Young each netted a goal for the Lions, making the score 7-1.

"At halftime the game was still very much close," Massachusetts coach Phil Barnes said. "Defensively we settled in the last ten minutes of the first half and made adjustments. But, in the second half, Penn State came out and played really hard."

After a timeout early in the second half, the two teams went back and forth scoring goals for the remainder of the game.

Young scored two more for the Lions and sophomore Kate Affonsa and junior B.J. Lucey each added one. Massachusett's freshman Nicole Chominski, senior Fay Naber and Ingraffea each added one more goal before the end of the game.

Despite giving up the three goals in the second half, Penn State's defense remained solid throughout the 60 minutes on the field. Goalkeeper Megan Ames had eight saves for the day.

"Defensively I think we played outstanding," Young said. "Our one on one defense was what was hurting us in the other two games, and today's was incredible. Our team defense was the best that it's ever been, I think, in any of our games."

Penn State will attempt to use the momentum from this win to improve its record this weekend against Virginia on Friday and William and Mary Sunday.

"It gives us a lot more confidence," Ford said. "I think we needed it. Not that we were down on ourselves, but it was definitely a big boost to get us on a good streak."