Ball possession and movement are crucial to effective lacrosse.

The No. 12 Penn State women's lacrosse team (3-2, 1-1 ALC) controlled the ball for much of the first half, but No. 18 Johns Hopkins (4-4, 2-2 ALC) dominated these aspects of the game in the second stanza in Penn State's 13-9 victory last night at Holuba Hall.

"We didn't take care of the ball," coach Suzanne Isidor said. "We didn't move enough off the ball to create opportunities for us."

The Lions continued their pattern of not putting together two solid halves, as they followed up their tremendous 10-2 first half with a second half in which the Blue Jays outscored them 7-3.

"We did everything right in the first half and then we made a ton of mistakes in the second half," Isidor said.

Attacker Brooke Bailey, who scored four goals in the game, said her team became complacent, leading to a lack of motion on offense in the second half.

"I thought it got to a point where we relaxed and got to a state where we didn't move like we should have," said Bailey, who now has five goals and one assist for the season. "We took the win in the second half for granted."

In the first half, the Lions controlled possession of the ball for long stretches. To open the contest, Penn State held the ball inside their attacking zone for about four minutes, culminating in the first of attacker Katie Jeschke's four goals. The goal increased her lead as the Lions leading scorer, as she now has 10 goals and five assists on the season.

After taking a 7-2 lead, the Lions worked the ball around and controlled possession the 9:30 and 8:15 marks.

The goal that gave the Lions a 3-0 lead symbolized Penn State's first half ability to make quick passes to cutting players that lead to goals.

Midfielder Jamie Donahue ran with the ball across midfield and fed Jeschke, who was cutting down the right side of the field. Jeschke then dished to attacker Colleen O'Hara, who put the ball by Blue Jays goalie Jen McDonald for one of her three goals in the game.

Penn State's brightest moment in the second half came when Jeschke iced the game, making the score 13-9 with 1:54 to play. After John Hopkins had scored four consecutive goals and was threatening to pull an incredible upset, the Lions showed uncharacteristically strong second half ball movement, holding the ball for a while in the Blue Jays' zone and keeping it away from Johns Hopkins. Jeschke finally shot the ball into a wide open net, as McDonald was covering a Penn State player at the side of the net.

"I think her (Jeschke's) play is something we feed off," Bailey said. "With the last shot we did seal (the game)."

The Lions stressed that they need to play a complete game if they are to challenge No. 3 Princeton at home on Saturday.

"We had some lapses in the second half," Jeschke said. "We just need to play for 60 minutes against Princeton if we want to win."