After last week's cross-county trip to the West Coast to participate in the UCLA Women's Cup, the No. 6 Penn State women's soccer team will stay on the East Coast this weekend and play in the Harvard Tournament in Massachusetts.

Today, at 3 p.m. in Newton, Mass., at the Newton Campus Soccer Field the Nittany Lions (2-1) take on Boston College (3-1).

On Sunday at 1:30 p.m. they face No. 23 Harvard (1-0) in Boston at Ohiri Field.

Their trip to California started out on the wrong foot as the Lions fell 1-0 in an upset loss to USC. They were able to rebound, however, with a thrilling 1-0 double overtime victory over No. 5 UCLA.

The Lions are hoping that they can get some consistency in their play this weekend, which is something Penn State was unable to get while out in California.

"Our team goals are to play great team defense and from that the offense will come," freshman Carmelina Moscato said. "If we have little goals to focus on that will help us play at a more consistent level."

Early in the season the team figured that the defense would be its weakness, along with the fact that they have to replace All-American goaltender Emily Oleksiuk.

But out in California the defense more than held its own, allowing just one goal.

Freshman Amanda Brown was spectacular in goal against UCLA, saving the game for the Lions on more than one occasion.

"Like anything it's kind of a progressive thing," freshman defender Natalie Jacobs said.

"Since the Pitt game we have gotten progressively better. I think by the end of the season and the tournament we are going to be phenomenal."

The offense was supposed to be the well-oiled machine that is expected to put up big numbers for the Lions this season.

They return Hermann Trophy-winner Christie Welsh, along with dual scoring threats, juniors Joanna Lohman and Heidi Drummond.

The Lions' offense found the back of the net seven times in its opener, but was able to tally just one goal on its last road trip.

Penn State women's soccer coach Paula Wilkins has said that the offensive unit has gotten its opportunities thus far, but just hasn't capitalized on all of them yet.

Freshman phenoms Tiffany Weimer, who assisted on Welsh's game winner against UCLA, and Moscato, who recently joined the team after playing with the Canadian National Team, has given the Lions' offense two more threats.

"Knowing what we are capable of I don't think we have reached our potential yet," Weimer said.

The Lions will have two chances this weekend to polish their offensive and defensive games before the Big Ten portion of their schedule kicks off on Sept. 20 against Northwestern.

Today they will face a Golden Eagles squad fresh off of a 2-1 victory over Iowa.

No. 23 Harvard comes into the weekend with just one game under its belt, a 5-1 victory over Vermont.

Boston College and Harvard will be looking to keep their momentum going, as will the Lions after their win over UCLA.

"One of the keys is going to be not letting down after UCLA," Wilkins said.

"We need to carry that momentum over to BC. They are going to fight hard and be emotionally involved and we are going to have to match that."