They were like bees swarming to protect their hive.

The No. 11 Penn State women's lacrosse team warded off Temple yesterday, stinging them 13-7 at Bigler Field.

While Penn State's offense and defense has been known to show up on different days this season, both finally came together for a sweet victory, headlined by sophomore Kristin Burke's game-high four goals and captain Lee Tortorelli's 17 saves.

"We got back to the basics and proved that we could really take it to teams," Penn State women's lacrosse coach Suzanne Isidor said.

By scoring two quick goals about five minutes into the game, Burke, a 6-foot-1 midfielder, sent a clear message to Temple (4-2) that the Nittany Lions (4-3) would be unrelenting.

Temple never found a way to stop Burke, and by the end of the first half, she already had a hat trick.

"I was just getting myself into open space," Burke said, "and my teammates were just doing a great job of feeding me and getting me the balls where I could put them in goal."

Behind the team's best defensive showing this season, Tortorelli seemed to come up with the big save every time Temple got to the net.

"I think it was just a matter of defense working together today," Tortorelli said, "and putting it all together and executing our gameplan. I had a great defense in front of me and they really helped me out."

Penn State's midfield and defense gave Temple headaches all afternoon. Though the Owls controlled possession time through most of the first half, they could not penetrate through the stalwart Penn State defense, and went into the half down 7-2. With each Temple pass, there was a Penn State player in front to block the path to the goal.

"Our defense played smart," Isidor said. "It played very poised and under control, and we didn't take any unnecessary risks."

Though the Lions took a 7-2 lead into intermission, they continued stifling the Owls' attack into the second half. Temple, rather than becoming more aggressive in an attempt to battle back from a five-goal deficit, seemed more content passing the ball just inside midfield.

Temple coach Kim Ciarrocca couldn't explain why her team didn't up the ante in the second half.

"I don't know if it's from sitting around all day," she said. "It couldn't be that we were tired, we haven't played a game in a few days. It's not that we were flat. I don't know if we were just lazy -- I'm not sure what it was."

Penn State's offense matched its defense's efforts. Six Lions scored a goal, and of those six, four of them scored more than once. Senior attacker Colleen O'Hara netted three more goals and now leads the team with 16. Junior midfielder Katie Hartman scored two goals for the second straight game, and freshman midfielder Lori Havrilla added two as well.

"In the past, we've relied on Colleen and KJ [Katie Jeschke] to do all of our scoring," Isidor said. "They're drawing some touch defenders, so it's great to have Kristen Burke, Katie Hartman, Jamie Donahue and Shari Maslin to step up. That's exactly what our focus was going into this. They're all very physical scorers and great attackers."