The referee was about ready to throw in the towel. The 10-run RBI Baseball slaughter rule was almost in effect. But after being down 9 scores, a furious second half rally by No. 18 Johns Hopkins made No. 12 Penn State and its fans sweat out a 13-9 victory at Holuba Hall on Wednesday night.

Johns Hopkins' (4-4) black and blue jerseys defined their first-half play, as the Blue Jays were bruised and beaten by a hungrier Penn State (3-2) team in the first half.

"That's the way we come out every game," senior Brooke Bailey said. "You gotta want the ball, you gotta want the win in order to set the tone."

In a 2-0 Penn State game, freshman Kristen Burke hustled to a loose ball in Penn State territory and made a quick pass to Katie Jeschke on her right. Jeschke, who had four goals on the night, swiftly found a wide-open Colleen O'Hara ahead of the field for an easy breakaway goal. The fluid breakaway was one of several breakout goals for the Lions.

Minutes later in a 3-1 game Brooke Bailey, who netted four scores on Wednesday, made a Dennis Rodman like play as she out-hustled and out-muscled Hopkins goalie Jen McDonald for a loose ball in the air, and quickly fired in the Lions' fourth goal. It was plays like these that gave Penn State a commanding 10-2 lead heading into halftime.

The second half was a whole different contest after Hopkins coach Janine Tucker gave a fiery halftime speech to her players.

"I told them to get their feet under them," she said, "because they looked scared and timid and they had a reputation to uphold."

The Blue Jays responded with a flurry of second half goals including a pair of extra-smooth goals by senior Jamie Larrimore. Larrimore flashed some slick moves as she stopped on a dime several times, and used a variety of spin moves to get past the Penn State defense.

But the Blue Jays dug themselves in way too deep and didn't have enough gas after coming within three goals with 4:22 remaining.

Although the Lions played a great first half and notched their first conference victory, the problem of consistency was exposed again as the Lions became relaxed in the second half. With No. 3 Princeton coming into town Saturday, Penn State must put together 60 minutes of play. With a group of fiery seniors on the squad, Penn State definitely has the potential to find that killer instinct.

"What's great about this team is that we have a lot of emotional leaders," Penn State coach Suzanne Isidor said.