Any thoroughbred racehorse or Olympic runner knows that conditioning is the key to being successful.

Conditioning also happens to be a key element in the world of soccer and yesterday at Jeffrey Field it was the downfall of the Penn State women's soccer team.

The No. 8 Nittany Lions fell to No. 9 Connecticut 4-2 in a three-period exhibition. The Lions certainly didn't look slow out of the gate as they dominated the first period, out-shooting the Huskies, 7-1. Sophomore Stephanie Pezzullo struck in the 37th minute for the Lions with a putback of senior Christie Welsh's direct kick that was initially saved by Huskies goalkeeper Maria Yatrakis.

As the game progressed, it was evident that the Huskies were the fresher team and able to get to more loose balls. Huskies freshman midfielder Kristi Lefebvre tied the game at one on a nice feed from senior forward Salla Ranta.

Penn State women's soccer coach Paula Wilkins was not too disappointed in the Lions' stamina because the team had not stopped practicing before the game.

"We trained through this game, we didn't taper at all," Wilkins said. "I'm not too worried about that because of that fact."

Welsh gave the Lions their final lead of the game at 2-1 when she cut across the box, dribbled by a defender and used a well-placed right foot to find the back of the net. The Hermann Trophy winner had several other chances throughout the game, but she found the post on one try and pushed balls wide of the net on others.

Less than two minutes later, in the 82nd minute, sophomore Kristen Graczyk knotted the game at two. Lefebvre then was at it again, connecting with fellow freshman Kristine Lundberg to put the Huskies ahead for good.

The Connecticut roster features 12 freshmen and Huskies head coach Len Tsantiris was pleased with the significant contributions from the incoming class.

"We have a lot of new kids," Tsantiris said. "We lost a lot of kids last year. For us we wanted to see how those kids could measure up in the new season and see how they could do."

The Lions started true freshman Amanda Brown in goal and she allowed no goals in her 45 minutes in net. Sophomore Jaime Stich played most of the second period as senior Alison Weimer and freshman Mary Ellen Oleksiuk, the sister of former Lions standout Emily, split the rest of the time. The Lions top two keepers right now are Brown and Stich, said Wilkins, but that could change in practice.

"I was definitely really nervous at first," Brown said. "Through preseason everyone on the team made it easy to be comfortable playing and everyone helped my confidence a lot."

The Lions' offense may have been sputtering not only because of stamina, but because the tandem of Welsh and junior midfielder Joanna Lohman was without junior Heidi Drummond, who sat out the game with an injury. Wilkins said Drummond's status for the season opener is questionable.

"We are just going to work on everything we didn't do well in this game which is a lot of things," Lohman said. "Hopefully next week we will have a different ending to the game."

The Lions will have less than a week to build up their stamina as they start the regular season on Sunday at Jeffrey Field against Pittsburgh.