A fitting end to a season, and to a career.

Playing in her last regular-season game, despite being a junior, Heather Conroy scored the game-winning goal to lead the No. 6 Penn State field hockey team to a 3-2 overtime victory over No. 13 Iowa (9-7, 2-4 Big Ten) yesterday at a chilly Bigler Field.

Conroy, who tore her Achilles tendon after her freshman season, is electing not to come back for her senior season, citing her ankle pain as the reason.

With the win, the No. 6 Nittany Lions (15-3, 4-2) locked up the third seed for the Big Ten Tournament, which starts Friday at Ohio State.

Conroy scored her sixth game-winning goal of the season off a shot from the right side of the circle five minutes into the overtime period. Senior midfielder Jill Martz, also playing in her last regular season game, assisted.

"I am very happy for our seniors in that they got to go out on a high note at home," Penn State field hockey coach Char Morett said.

The game started out slow, with neither team threatening much offensively. Most of the first half was played in between the 25-yard lines. The Lions were unable to earn a penalty corner until the end of the half. Forward Timarie Legel was able to open up the scoring for the Lions when she picked up a loose ball at the crease and buried it in the back of the cage.

"I was glad to get us started out early," Legel said. "It was too bad we couldn't keep the scoring going."

The second half saw more of the same pace from both teams, with Penn State unable to score again until late in the half. The Hawkeyes had two goals off well-placed shots. Lions goalie Annie Zinkavich was forced to make several diving saves throughout the game and just allowed a few balls to get passed.

Freshman midfielder Sara Cahill scored her first career goal late in the second half off a no-look shot into the left corner of the cage. Martz fed Cahill with a pass across the circle.

"We came out slow in the second half," Morett said, "but I'm very happy that we responded and came back and rebounded later in the second half."

Legel felt the Lions were playing down to the level of the Hawkeyes. The Hawks are a slower-paced team and the Lions were unable to use their speed to their advantage, allowing Iowa to determine the pace of the game.

With the tough overtime win, only the second OT contest of the season, Morett says the Lions have the momentum going into the Big Ten tournament.

"We're going to hopefully use this as motivation for the Big Ten tournament," Morett said.