All Timarie Legel could do was stand there with her hands on her hips and watch.

The Michigan State field hockey team was being awarded the championship trophy for the Big Ten Tournament after defeating Penn State 5-3 yesterday at Bigler Field.

The game, which saw Michigan State take a 5-0 lead before the Nittany Lions notched three goals in the second half, marked the last time Legel and the team's other seniors would play on Bigler Field.

The No. 4 seeded Lions beat Iowa and No. 1 seed Michigan earlier in the weekend to reach the championship against second seeded Michigan State. The Spartans, who knocked Penn State out of the tournament last year en route to the title, wasted no time in asserting themselves against the Lions. Midfielder Veerle Goudswaard scored on a penalty corner just 1:46 into play.

"We knew we had to jump on them early," Michigan State field hockey coach Michele Madison said. "That was our only chance to get an emotional lead."

Tournament MVP Alexandra Kyser and Michelle Huynh-Ba added two more goals for the Spartans, who went into halftime with a commanding 3-0 lead. The Lions were unable to get anything going offensively in the first half, and had only one shot on goal, compared to eight for the Spartans.

"We were tentative in passing and receiving the ball in the first half," Penn State field hockey coach Char Morett said. "We didn't have any choice but to fight back and that's what we did."

At the beginning of the second half, it didn't appear as if the Lions had any fight left. Goudswaard and Huynh-Ba added two more goals for the Spartans who mounted an insurmountable five-goal lead. However, the Lions finally started clicking as Legel scored her 16th goal of the season off a penalty corner. Sara Cahill then came off the bench and scored for the Lions, cutting the Spartan lead to three goals. Then it was Legel again finding the back of the goal cage with 17:40 remaining in the game.

But that is where the comeback stopped. The Lions continued to get opportunities offensively in the second half, but could not capitalize.

Morett said that she was proud of the team's senior leaders. She said Legel, Neilye Stoner and Heather Conroy were largely responsible for motivating a downtrodden group of players in the second half.

"Going into halftime, some of them had their heads down," Morett said. "That doesn't happen on this field and that doesn't happen with this program."

Michigan State junior Annebet Beerman had three assists in the game and five throughout the course of the weekend, both of which tied Big Ten Tournament records. The Spartans converted on four of nine penalty corner opportunities, just one day after the Lions stopped all of Michigan's ten penalty corners. Morett said the team knew how potent Michigan State's penalty attack was going into the game, but were just unable to stop it.

Despite the loss in the championship, Morett said Penn State's performance will likely be good enough to land it in the NCAA Tournament. Seeding and match-ups for the 16-team tournament will be announced tomorrow evening.