Off-season workouts tend to be the Achilles heel for many collegiate sports teams.

With minimal interaction and direct oversight from coaches, players are typically on their honor to keep in shape for the next season.

For the Penn State field hockey team, the offseason was utilized to make improvements after coming off a disappointing season in which the Nittany Lions missed the NCAA tournament for the first time in 20 years.

"We were held out of the tournament because of the tournament format, not because of a lack of ability," said Penn State field hockey coach Charlene Morett.

"Because of the format, there are a lot of weak teams automatically making the tournament."

Many teams that won their respective conferences last year were automatically entered into the tournament.

Although they may have had a weaker schedule than Penn State, which finished tied for fourth in the Big Ten last season.

Despite last year's lackluster ending, Morett was happy with the way the senior leaders of the team stepped up after the season to get all players involved in the off-season regimen and turn last year's frustration into a productive offseason.

"A bunch of us were up in here this summer to work hard," said midfielder Heather Conroy.

"Most of us never quit playing the whole summer."

The team ate, slept, and drank field hockey.

Conroy said that because she and her teammates played throughout the offseason, they will not have to spend as much time on relearning some of the fundamental aspects of the game.

She also said maintenance of fundamentals proves to be important because less time will be spent on the basics and more practice time can be devoted to pressing team tactics.

However, the most notable off-season event was the team's trip to Barcelona, Spain, when it competed against some of the country's premier club teams.

NCAA teams are permitted once every four years to play in overseas tournaments.

"We were able to see things over in Spain that we aren't typically seeing in America unless the team has some players from other countries," Conroy said.

The primary aspect the field hockey team was exposed to in foreign competition was stick handling.

The new stick handling taken from Spain will hopefully give the team an upper hand against opponents.

Still, many players returned home with even more skills in their arsenal, and hope to make a return to postseason play.

Lions hope off-season workouts will pay off