Before Friday's women's soccer game against Ohio State, Penn State coach Paula Wilkins called the team the "biggest offensive threat in the Big Ten."

That couldn't have been truer.

Ohio State (8-7-1, 5-4-1 Big Ten) beat the No. 4 Nittany Lions 2-1, helping them to finish fourth in the Big Ten.

But the Lions' weekend didn't end there. The Lions beat Pittsburgh yesterday with a score of 6-2.

The loss against the Buckeyes, however, snapped the team's 29-game unbeaten streak in the conference.

Ohio State came out tough and quick, scoring their only two goals within the first 10 minutes of play.

Ohio State's Emily Thorpe brought the ball down the left side and found Lisa Grubb open in the center of the box. Grubb, Ohio State's top scorer, turned towards the net, dribbled past a defender and shot the ball past goalkeeper Emily Oleksiuk at 6:20.

Three minutes later, Grubb was at it again.

Grubb got hold of a loose ball and carried it down the left side. Liz Mumley, wide open on the right side of the field, received the pass and shot the ball past Oleksiuk on the right for her first career goal.

With 12:20 on the clock in the first, the lights went out in the stadium for the first time causing a 29-minute delay.

"I think the first was to our benefit," forward Christie Welsh said. "We played much better when we came out after the delay."

The lights would go out again in the second with 17:56 remaining on the clock, this time for 20 minutes.

"It's an excuse we can use," Penn State coach Paula Wilkins said about the effects the delays had on the game. "It hurt our momentum. . .It was unfortunate. We had to deal with it and accept it."

Three minutes before the second delay, Penn State's Stephanie Pezzullo put the Lions on the board with a shot into the top left of the goal, just missing the hands of Ohio State goalkeeper Jen Heaney.

Despite the momentum and intensity after Pezzullo's goal, the Lions were unable to pull off the win.

That intensity continued after the game was over however, as goalkeeper Emily Oleksiuk got a red card for pushing an Ohio State player. Wilkins then picked one up when she started discussing the issue with the referee.

Both Wilkins and Oleksiuk had to sit out of yesterday's game against Pittsburgh because of the cards.

"None of us thought we were going to lose the game," sophomore Heidi Drummond said. "Once we did we were kind of in shock."

But the loss Friday only helped the Lions going into yesterday's game against Pittsburgh.

"During the game (Ohio State) our team showed a lot of emotion. Our team took that lesson into the game today," Oleksiuk said after the Pittsburgh game.

The Lions came out strong, scoring with just 6:17 on the clock, off a Heidi Drummond rebound.

The rest of the first half remained scoreless, and the Nittany Lions entered the half with the lead.

Welsh was up to her old "tricks" this weekend again, scoring three total goals for Penn State in the second half. Welsh's first goal came 11 minutes into the second, on a breakaway. Her second came only 2:38 later with a shot from the top of the box making the score 3-0.

Penn State's fourth goal came from Stephanie Smith off a corner kick at 65:27.

"We started over with a clean slate," Drummond said about the Pittsburgh game. "It was a good feeling to put some goals away."

Pittsburgh got on the board with a goal from Cara Senger, who scored on a cross pass from Jacqueline Fix that got by goalkeeper Alison Weimer.

Penn State finished off its scoring in the next five minutes, when Welsh got her third goal of the day for a hat trick and Pezzullo added her second goal of the weekend.

The Panthers added their final goal of the game when midfielder Katrina Shibata shot the ball into an empty Lion net at 81:31.

Penn State finished with 30 shots on goal to Pittsburgh's eight, with eight of those shots coming from Welsh.

"It was important for my mindset," Welsh said about scoring three goals. "It feels good to do that. Hopefully I'll keep it going."

The Lions, as a team, will also try to keep it going against George Mason next Sunday in their final game of the regular season.