They played in the same midfield on three undefeated teams together in high school.

Today, they'll go head to head.

Penn State sophomore Jamie Donahue and Temple junior Jessica Yemm, teammates for three years at Upper Dublin High School, will square off in the midfield today at 3 p.m., as No. 12 Penn State women's lacrosse team (3-3, 1-1 ALC) visits Temple (2-2).

Though they will fight their hardest against each other on the field, Donahue and Yemm remain close friends.

"We stay in touch," said Donahue, who also played high school basketball and field hockey with Yemm. "We talk about our teams a lot."

Yemm scored a hat trick, her first three goals of the season, in Temple's last game, a 12-8 victory against the University of Pennsylvania last Tuesday.

"Jessica's a very smart player," Donahue said of Yemm, who was tied for fourth on her team with seven ground ball pick-ups entering the Penn game. "She makes the players around her look good. She's really quick."

The Lions must also mark Owl attackers Deanna Radcliffe (eight goals) and Noelle Cerne (six goals and two assists). Cerne had a hat trick and two assists against Penn.

Cerne won three high school New York Class A state titles at Yorktown (N.Y.), while playing with Lions' senior defender Alyson Shand.

As for the Lions' attack, forward Katie Jeschke, the team's second leading goal-scorer last season with 34, has been held scoreless in three of Penn State's last four games. Jeschke, who tallied four goals in the Lions' 13-9 victory against Johns Hopkins on Wednesday, said she wants to be a more consistent scorer.

"I feel like lately I haven't been very consistent," Jeschke said. "Against William and Mary, Johns Hopkins and Princeton, I was scoreless. My personal goal is to be more consistent."

Jeschke added that the Lions need to work more as a cohesive offensive unit than they did against the Tigers.

"Each person just felt like they needed to get things done themselves (against Princeton)," Jeschke said. "If good things are going to happen on both ends of the field, we have to work as a team."

Against the Tigers, Penn State would often attack the goal when Princeton defenders were already set up to pressure the Lions, limiting Penn State to weak scoring chances. In these situations and in loose-ball scrambles, the Tigers won the majority of the individual battles.

The Lions gave up strings of six and seven consecutive goals to Princeton, during which time they lacked intensity. Jeschke said that Penn State must play with more intensity against Temple than they showed against the Tigers.

"There were times when we had blank looks on our faces (against Princeton)," she said. "We came out strong but when they started turning the game around we didn't come back with the intensity we needed to win."

One of the Lions' largest problems throughout the last two seasons has been their inability to play 60 minutes of intense, focused lacrosse.

Donahue will try to play a complete game against her former high school teammate Yemm and the rest of the Owls.

"Lacrosse in high school was great," Donahue said. "I learned a lot from her (Yemm)."

Donahue will try to use what she learned from Yemm, though unlike in high school, she'll be trying her hardest to defeat Yemm and the Owls.