While the Penn State women's lacrosse team came out against Loyola Saturday hoping to snap its win-loss streak, it came out against Johns Hopkins yesterday in exactly the opposite fashion.

In its 15-14 loss to Loyola, the Nittany Lions failed to win back-to-back games for the fifth time this season. Thanks to an 11-4 win at American Lacrosse Conference rival No. 18 Johns Hopkins (6-3, 4-2 ALC) yesterday, No. 9 Penn State (6-5, 3-0) will now have a sixth opportunity to win two straight games when it returns home to take on the University of Pennsylvania next Tuesday.

"Johns Hopkins is some of the toughest competition in the conference," Penn State women's lacrosse coach Suzanne Isidor said. "It's nice to get that win under our belts."

The Penn State-Johns Hopkins matchup was everything that the Penn State-Loyola match was not. While the Lions were forced to fight an uphill battle against the Greyhounds, Penn State was all over Johns Hopkins from the beginning.

Captain Katie Jeschke picked up right where she left off after sinking three goals against Loyola. With the game less than two minutes underway, Jeschke scored on a feed from junior attacker Stephanie Curnoles to put the Lions up 1-0. The Blue Jays responded quickly as senior midfielder Erinn Dennis knotted the game with an unassisted goal.

Curnoles tallied her second of three assists on the day when sophomore midfielder Kristen Burke scored a go-ahead goal at 5:41. From there, the Lions put the game away by scoring the next six goals and the next nine of ten.

While senior attacker Colleen O'Hara, the team's leading scorer with 24 goals and 39 points, was the spark that kept Penn State alive against Loyola, the Lions' scoring was as evenly distributed as it has been all season against Johns Hopkins. Four Penn State players had at least two goals, while three others chipped in at least one.

Isidor said the team's balanced attack not only eased the burden on O'Hara, but it showcased Penn State's other scoring weapons.

"The pressure wasn't on Colleen because others were stepping up," Isidor said. "We showed that we have other players that are capable of scoring."

After its thrashing of Johns Hopkins, Penn State has four players with at least 20 points -- evidence that the Lions may be better than their 6-5 record indicates.

When the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association released its fifth weekly poll on March 31, Penn State was the only Top Ten team other than Princeton (4-3) that was just one game above .500.

Only three goals separate the Lions from a 9-2 record, and lacrosse followers are beginning to recognize the threat that Penn State poses to the rest of the NCAA.

During the team's trip to Baltimore, Md., last weekend, a Baltimore Sun writer remarked that the Lions may be the best .500 team he has ever seen, Isidor said.

"We're playing better than a 6-5 record," Isidor said.

"We're a young team and we just keep getting better. I'm impressed with where we are now, and we just need to keep improving."