It is often said in sports that good teams have to win their home games.

The No. 17 Nittany Lions (6-6, 0-3 Big Ten) took care of business at Bigler Field yesterday and Sunday. They dominated West Chester on the way to a 3-0 victory yesterday and they revenged last year's season-ending N.C.A.A. tournament loss, knocking off No. 5 Princeton 2-0 Sunday. The Lions bounced back to earn the wins after losing 2-1 at No. 18 Iowa Friday.

Penn State's huge weekend victory came against the Tigers, who had twice defeated the Lions last season. Last year, Princeton beat Penn State 4-2 in the tournament after earning a 3-1 victory during the regular season.

Lions' senior co-captain Kiley Kulina, who recorded a goal and an assist against the Tigers, said contributing the points against Princeton was particularly sweet. "We hadn't beaten them since I've been (at Penn State)," she said. "It was great to get that first goal and then to get that second goal to give us a two-goal lead, it was a great feeling."

The Lions got on the board with 29:39 to play in the first half, as Kulina said she lifted the ball over a Princeton back's stick to forward Meredith Schulzitski, who executed her patented reverse-stick-shot to beat Tigers goalie Kelly Baril.

Kulina made the score 2-0 at the 33:21 mark of the second half, as she shot the ball off a penalty corner, and it deflected off a Princeton defender into the net to Baril's left.

Goalie Annie Zinkavich and the rest of the Lions held Princeton off the scoreboard for the remainder of the game. Zinkavich recorded six saves for the game to earn her first solo shutout of the season. Neilye Stoner made a defensive save, her fifth of the year.

"We were pretty confident once we had (the second goal) and stuck with what we'd been working on and finished it out," said Kulina, who was named the Big Ten's Co-Offensive Player of the Week for her seven-point week.

Against West Chester, the Lions completely controlled play in the first half, recording 13 shots and 9 corners, while shutting out the Golden Rams in both categories. Penn State took a 1-0 lead at the 13:32 mark of the first half as Jill Martz drove toward the net down the right side of the field and dished to Schulzitski at the left post, who extended her stick to tip the ball in.

"It's always exciting to get the team on the board," said co-captain Schulzitski. "We've been trying to score first a lot lately. It's very important to get the game started and for us to take control."

Forward Timarie Legel, who scored Penn State's only goal against Iowa, provided two insurance tallies to finish off the Golden Rams. To make the score 2-0 with 18:34 to play in the game, Legel, positioned herself to goalie Joelle Maguire's left, off a Kulina shot from a corner, and redirected the blast past Maguire.

Schulzitski fed Legel for the Lions' final goal with 42 seconds to play in the contest. Penn State held the West Chester to zero shots and one corner for the match, while the Lions put 19 shots on goal and earned 13 corners.

"We made just one too many mistakes in our deep end, and they made us pay," Golden Rams' coach Kathy Krannebitter said. "I think that was the difference between us and them. They didn't make a whole lot of mistakes. When they did make mistakes, we weren't able to capitalize on it."

In the loss to Iowa, Penn State out-shot the Hawkeyes 13-7 and recorded 10 corners to Iowa's three. Forward Gina Carr got the Hawkeyes on the board first with 30:02 to play in the first half.

Legel knotted the score at the 4:53 mark of the first half, but Iowa forward Rebekah Heavrin scored the game-winner with 8:51 to play in the second half. Forward Pattie Gillern got the assist on the Hawkeyes final tally.

Legel, a sophomore who leads the Lions with nine goals and 19 points on the season, said the Lions have had to make up for the loss of Tracy Anselmo and Megan Gaelie, who graduated after last season, but she has not felt pressure to handle the scoring load herself.

"(Anselmo and Gaelie) were both great players and (they were) definitely a huge loss," Legel said. "As a total team we had to step up and to make up for them not being here. I'm just doing my best trying to score."