While the Carolina Panthers battled to fight off a last-second comeback in St. Louis Saturday afternoon, back in the Tar Heel State, the Penn State's women's swimming and diving team was trying to prevent losing a lead of its own.

Thanks to strong collective and individual efforts by the members of the 200-yard medley relay team, the Lions managed to overcome a four-victory afternoon by North Carolina senior Jessi Perruquet, defeating the Tar Heels 157.5-142.5.

With their victory against the No. 13 Tar Heels at North Carolina's Koury Natatorium, the No. 15 Nittany Lions improved their record in dual meets to 5-1 on the season.

Sarah Haupt, Kristen Woodring and Amberle Biedermann paced the Lions, each contributing to victories in a pair of events.

The three got Penn State off to a quick start when they teamed with Deidre Dlugonski to take the 200-yard medley relay in 1:44.37.

Each then placed first in their respective individual events.

Haupt won the 100-yard backstroke in 56.56 seconds, Woodring the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:02.63, and Biedermann the 100-yard butterfly in 55.79.

Freshman distance swimmer Margy Keefe contributed two wins, taking the 500-yard freestyle in 4:52.57 and the 1000-yd. freestyle in 9:56.59.

Woodring said the win was encouraging for a number of reasons.

"It was tough because we had just spent 13 hours on the bus," she said. "We didn't necessarily swim our best individual times but still managed to pull out a win."

The team spent Christmas break in Florida while training for the remainder of the season.

"It was a tough two weeks of training," Keefe said.

"I really didn't go into the meet with many personal expectations, I was just happy to race again after a few weeks of training."