There is no mathematical formula to winning.

The Penn State women's lacrosse team, however, has dedicated its entire season thus far attempting to disprove such a theory.

Refusing to stray from their tendency to win only every other game, the Nittany Lions came away from the Big Ten-ACC Challenge this weekend with -- surprise -- a split.

After dropping to 4-4 following a heartbreaking 11-10 loss at No. 2 Maryland Friday, Penn State bounced back yesterday at North Carolina, upsetting the No. 9 Tarheels 9-7.

The Lions win-loss record this weekend does not necessarily reflect the team's performance, which was possibly its best of the season.

"We played the best we have all season," Penn State women's lacrosse coach Suzanne Isidor said of Penn State's near-upset of Maryland. "It was a great team effort."

The Lions (5-4) forced the undefeated Terps (9-0) to hold their breath right up until the end of a back-and-forth contest. With the score knotted at 10-10, Maryland's Kelly Coppedge scored to give the Terps a one-goal advantage with just under eight minutes remaining. Though the window of opportunity quickly began closing on Penn State, the Lions assembled a threatening attack with about one minute left on the clock.

The threat would come to an abrupt and painful end, however, as officials penalized Penn State for an off-ball foul.

"It was a heartbreaker in that we almost pulled it off," Isidor said, "but it was a great feeling in that we played the best we had all season. We proved a lot to ourselves." Penn State, determined not to lose consecutive games to Top Ten teams, stayed true to its win-loss pattern and handed North Carolina its third straight loss.

While the Lions were coming off of a disappointing loss two days earlier, the Tarheels (3-6) were reeling from a 10-8 loss to No. 16 Ohio State (7-1).

"We were confident because we knew North Carolina was beatable," Isidor said, "and we had just played a No. 2 team up to the end."

Like it did against Maryland, Penn State opened up the game with three straight goals.

North Carolina, however, answered with three goals of its own.

The elements reminiscent of the Penn State-Maryland nailbiter were in place once again as the Lions took a 5-4 advantage into the half.

The one goal difference was as far as the Tarheels could climb back, as the Lions, behind a patient attack, posted three goal leads twice in the second half.

With wins against Vanderbilt and North Carolina this season, Penn State has put itself in respectable position to earn an at-large playoff berth.

"Everybody has confidence now," Isidor said. "We knew the potential was there. But we're not going to settle with a win against North Carolina. We know we can go after the best teams in the country."

The Lions will have their chance to go after two more of the best teams in the country next weekend when its travels to No. 1 Loyola and No. 18 Johns Hopkins.