Virginia never really had a chance.

Behind rugged defense and an offensively explosive second half, the Penn State Lady Ruggers buried the visiting Virginia Cavaliers, 46-5, Saturday to start their regular season.

The Lady Ruggers shook off some first-game jitters and rust to build a 17-0 first half lead.

They struggled early with possession, but got rolling on scrumhalf Claudia Knudsen's try 15 minutes into the game. Forwards Kathy Doyle and Kim McGreevy also scored a try for the team.

In the second 40 minutes, Penn State was nearly unstoppable.

The Lady Ruggers scored 29 unanswered points, including another try by Doyle, until Virginia broke through with a try of their own with about two minutes left.

Wingers Leah Ackerman and Katie Glover, flanker Devon Bailer and lock Kirsten Aerts also put the ball in the try zone in the second half outburst.

"I was definitely impressed by how (we) played," forward Alena Kolarsky said.

"We pulled together, were supportive and very positive, and we just worked our hearts out."

Despite concerns about scrums and lineouts leading up to the game, Penn State exerted themselves and dominated both aspects of the game.

"We played very well in the scrum and keeping possession," head coach Pete Steinberg said. "In the lineouts, although we won most of them, it took much effort."

Steinberg said one thing the team does have to work on is "long-rucking," which means keeping as much space as possible between the ball and the defender when ball carrier is tackled, which in effect makes the ball harder to pry away.

Perhaps the greatest effort of all by the Lady Ruggers was shown in tackling.

Despite several deep drives by the larger Cavalier team, Penn State kept them out of the try zone until the very end. Whenever it became close, the Lady Ruggers always seemed to be able to wrestle the ball away.

"This feels so wonderful," said Knudsen, a captain.

"We've been waiting to play them because they're such an aggressive team. It was so exciting to beat them by so much."

The squad heads to the University of Massachusetts for the annual Beantown Tournament this weekend.