Of everything the women's lacrosse team will pack up and take with it on a road trip to Virginia this weekend, a little something it picked up in its first victory will be most important.

The Lions will rely on the momentum from Tuesday's 11-4 win over UMass as they attempt to continue their success against No. 9 Virginia (3-2) today at 6 p.m. and No. 11 William and Mary (3-1) Sunday at 1 p.m.

"I think that win was important just to realize what it takes to win, and also how we need to play," head women's lacrosse coach Suzanne Weinberg said. "Going into a tough weekend like this, it's good to come off of a win."

However, the No. 15 Lions (1-2) need to get past two teams that are determined to avoid a repeat performance of the tough losses they both suffered in the past week. Virginia is still recovering from a disappointing 8-7 loss to No. 1 Maryland Tuesday, and William and Mary lost to No. 2 Georgetown Wednesday, 9-7.

"We played a great game, and we really executed our game plan very well," Virginia coach Julie Meyers said of Tuesday's defeat. "We're bringing the momentum from that, but we know Penn State's going to be fired up too."

Along with countering the energy the Lions will bring into the game, the Cavaliers will also have a little more experience playing as a team this season. Virginia has had five games so far as opposed to Penn State's three.

"Every year it's a big game, and they're a strong team," Weinberg said. "The fact that they've played five tough games is definitely going to work in their favor."

One of those games was a 10-13 loss to Penn State's other weekend opponent, William and Mary. The Tribe posted three wins to start the season before Wednesday's loss to Georgetown, and the strong start has made other programs take notice.

However, the team's early success is no surprise to head coach Tara Kelly.

"We definitely have the talent," she said. "Each game we have put the pieces together, and we just keep improving."

And although Wednesday's loss was a setback, the Dukes were able to identify the problems that kept them from scoring a major upset.

"We had the opportunity to win the game, but we made some choices that didn't make that possible," Kelly said. "It certainly was a learning game."

So, while William and Mary has been taking what it learned and applying it in practice, the Lions have simply been preparing for both opponents by perfecting the skills that worked for them Tuesday.

"We don't know much about (either team)," Penn State co-captain B.J. Lucey said. "We've been working on team defense, helping each other out, taking care of the ball, and on our attacking movement."

Virginia, on the other hand, has been keying in on Penn State's style of play as preparation for today's game.

"We're ready for them to come out with a lot of spunk and energy," said Meyers, who has been in touch with one of Penn State's earlier opponents. "We're expecting a lot of pressure in the transition. We're mentally preparing for that along with getting ourselves ready on the field."