With two seconds left, a final thud could be heard at Bigler Field, as Villanova's final shot bounced against the Penn State goal cage and the buzzer sounded.

In a game that saw Villanova stick around like a pesky younger brother, the No. 7 Penn State field hockey team defeated the Wildcats (11-6) 1-0 last night to improve its overall record to 15-4.

The game's only goal came off the stick of senior Neilye Stoner with just over two minutes left in the first half. Forward Mary Schaefer fired a shot towards the Villanova goal, and Stoner tipped it, changing the ball's direction just enough to get past Wildcat goalie Erin Scott. Stoner's deflection was the only thing to get by Villanova's freshman goalie, who stopped the Nittany Lions on 15 of 16 penalty corner opportunities.

Both teams started out the game unable to get anything going offensively. The Lions had nine penalty corner attempts in the first half, but were able to convert on only one. Co-captain Heather Conroy, who usually leads the team's penalty attack, was shut down by Scott time after time. Conroy said that the team tried different things on the penalty corner attempts, but nothing seemed to work.

"If I'd had known what the problem was, we'd have fixed it," Conroy said.

Penn State field hockey coach Char Morett said that sometimes the team just is unable to convert on the corners, but she is not overly concerned. What she was concerned about was Penn State's inability to control the flow of the game.

"We need to do a better job of taking care of the ball inside the 25," Morett said. "Most of their scoring opportunities came off of turnovers that we made."

What was probably Villanova's best scoring opportunity came just before halftime as a Wildcat forward was one-on-one with Penn State goalie Annie Zinkavich. Zinkavich slid out in front of the net, taking out the Villanova player, but no call was made, much to the dismay of Villanova field hockey coach Joanie Milhous, who argued with the referees long after the halftime whistle had blown. Both Milhous and Morett questioned calls throughout the game and said that the officiating was inconsistent.

The game was different from Penn State's previous match-ups against teams like Lafayette and Pennsylvania, when the Lions didn't come out with the right intensity. The Wildcats came into last night's match-up riding a six-game winning streak, and Milhous said that the team has improved throughout the course of the season.

"When the whole team shows up, this is what we're capable of," she said.