When a coach says she was shocked after a game, it generally is not a good indication of how that game transpired.

After watching her team play sluggish and uninspired lacrosse for practically 60 minutes against a sub-.500 University of Pennsylvania team, Penn State women's lacrosse coach Suzanne Isidor said she was "shocked" with the effort of her team.

She said that it was hard for her to believe that her team was not enthused and ready to go considering the circumstances.

The Nittany Lions fell to 6-6 on the year and are digging themselves into a deeper and deeper hole when it comes to the possibility of making the NCAA tournament.

Despite holding the No. 10 national ranking, the Lions are in serious danger of missing the tournament after another costly loss in a game that never was close.

"With an NCAA tournament bid on the line, to play like this is just unacceptable," Isidor said. "It will never happen again."

The Lions unfortunately do not have that many more chances to play. There are only five games left on the schedule, and the Lions are going to have to turn things around, and do it quickly, if there is going to be a postseason berth in their future.

The Lions' next game is at Northwestern on Saturday, and Isidor said getting back in a game situation will be good for the team.

The Lions will not have very much time to harp on the loss. However, with only a few practices before Saturday, it will be up to the captains to light a fire under the rest of the squad, and do it before it is too late.

"We will be ready to go tomorrow and be ready to go against Northwestern on Saturday," tri-captain Colleen O'Hara said.

"We can't be upset about it; we just have got to get a positive mindset and get ready to go."

This year's team is starting to shape up all too familiarly to last year's 8-9 campaign. Regardless of this season's struggles, the elder statesmen of the team have instilled a positive mindset in their younger players, which is starting to show.

"The bottom line is we can't really look back," freshman Shari Maslin said. "We have to win the rest of our games to make it to the tournament."

Isidor said prior to the game that her team was going to have to win the majority, if not all of its games to make it, and now that task is a whole lot tougher.