If there were any doubts in anyone's mind that the Penn State women's soccer team could not play with the upper echelon teams in the country, it put that to rest yesterday.

The No. 12 Nittany Lions (2-1) shut out No. 2 UCLA (2-1), 1-0, at the UCLA Women's Cup. The golden goal came in double overtime off the foot of All-American Christie Welsh, the 23rd game-winning goal of her career, in the 105th minute.

Freshman Tiffany Weimer held off a UCLA defender as she pushed the ball up the left sideline before spotting Welsh in the middle of the field, who buried the ball in the net.

"We competed today for the first time like we should," Penn State coach Paula Wilkins said. "It was a total team effort, and we played united as a team. Everyone stepped up in their own way to help us get the victory."

As hard as Penn State worked yesterday they didn't work for the loose balls against USC.

Penn State dropped a decision to USC (1-2) on Friday, losing by the score of 1-0. The Women of Troy scored the only goal of the game in the 85th minute when Megan Abbamonto's shot beat Lions' goaltender Amanda Brown.

"Everything we did [yesterday], we did the opposite against USC," Wilkins said. "They were better than expected, which is particularly my fault. USC worked hard and got to many balls."

Abbamonto's goal, which was scored from 25 yards out, was the first goal of the season for the Women of Troy.

The defense did not show any relapses from the USC game, as they played a strong and physical game and disrupted all of the Bruins scoring chances. UCLA had 19 shots on goal, to the Lions' 14 shots.

"We played well and cleared many balls," Wilkins said. "Their average height is 5-foot-10 and they were very dangerous, but we battled extremely well for the balls in the air."

The Bruins had many more scoring chances than the Lions, but Penn State saw how hard work paid off for USC, and duplicated it to gain the victory. USC was out-shot 15-12, but held the Lions to a limited number of quality scoring chances, and capitalized when the opportunity presented itself.

"I thought our defense played very well," said USC coach Jim Millinder. "We did a good job of shutting down Welsh. We hung in there and took advantage of our opportunities."

The Lions had chances to score, but failed to convert time and again. In the 67th minute, sophomore defender Amanda Lentz had a shot in the box that was deflected away by a USC defender and it ended the threat.

In the closing minutes after Abbamonto's goal, the Lions had a few more chances to get even off corner kicks but were denied.

Penn State had eight corner kicks to the Trojans five.

The Lions will be a more confident team when they head to the Boston area next weekend.

"It was a huge boost," Wilkins said. "We know we can play with the best, if we play as team."