Finally, with only one event remaining in Saturday's dual meet, it appeared as though the Penn State women's swimming and diving team could breathe easy.

The tense atmosphere that had pervaded over the McCoy Natatorium for much of the weekend began to lift as women smiled and hugged as the spectators in the balcony began collecting their coats and bundling up to face the cold.

After a brief summit, the team lined the deck to watch the 400-freestyle relay, led the fans in a cheer, and prepared to collect their fourth victory over a top-25 opponent this season.

Indiana's teams would have to place both first and second in the event to snatch the win, the equivalent of a half court shot at the buzzer.

After rolling around the rim for three minutes and 25 seconds, that half court shot rimmed out -- barely.

It wasn't until Indiana's teams somehow managed to secure the top two spots, only to have one team disqualified for a false start, that the Nittany Lions could truly enjoy their 188-180 victory against the Hoosiers.

Unfortunately, by then, much of the glow that comes from defeating the defending Big Ten champs was gone.

"You hate to win this way, on a D.Q.," Penn State women's swimming coach Bill Dorenkott said. "We have a lot of things that we need to work on."

It's hard to find fault with a team that just defeated the No. 12 team in the country, but Dorenkott said he was disappointed by his team's lack of attention to detail.

"We didn't do well with starts, finishes, turns, a lot of important details," Dorenkott said. "We got touched out a lot this weekend and that is just a lack of focus."

Despite the win, the Lions faced some adversity on the weekend. The team had to overcome a deficit of its own on Saturday, and the Lions spent much of the afternoon trying to overcome a Friday-night deficit of 12 points.

Also contributing to the early struggles was the 400-medley team, which was disqualified for a false start after being one of the most consistent facets of the team all year.

Despite not swimming particularly fast times throughout the course of the weekend, the Lions got strong performances in a number of different areas.

Diver Allison Riccobono won both the 3-meter and 1-meter events for the Lions, winning the 3-meter by more than 20 points.

Sophomore Amberle Biederman also was a major contributor, winning three events and having her second strong performance in as many meets.

Pittsburgh, the third team in the meet and a squad that received votes for the top-25 last week, was a non-factor, losing to both Penn State (277-93) and Indiana by large margins.

Looking ahead to the upcoming Big Ten Championships, Dorenkott said despite the problems the team faced this weekend, he saw a number of positive things.

"We faced some adversity and handled it fairly well," Dorenkott said.

"It is important to be able to regulate your emotions at a six-session event like Big Tens and I think we did that this weekend," he said.