In only the second week of the season, it might not be too early to label these games as "must win."

The No. 14 Penn State women's lacrosse team (0-1) will play four games in eight days. Penn State starts the stretch off tomorrow at Jeffrey Field against Davidson (1-3) at 1 p.m., and ends it on March 20, at home against William & Mary.

"[The four games] are huge. It stinks to lose the first game," senior Katie Jeschke said. "To upset one of the teams ranked above us would really be a good start for our season."

The schedule only gets tougher with No. 1 Princeton and No. 3 Maryland in the next weeks.

Penn State has not beaten Virginia since 1996 and is 3-11 overall against them. The last two meetings with James Madison have been split, with a combined score of 22-22.

"Obviously it would be a big confidence builder if we can win a couple big ones," Penn State women's lacrosse coach Suzanne Isidor said. "We have so much potential and so much talent. Now its about executing when it really means something; under pressure against big teams."

Throughout the week the team has focused on team defense and controlling ground balls, two things that hurt them in the loss to Vanderbilt on Sunday.

"We were pretty confident in the first game," senior Jackie Sherman said. "We just had 10 minutes where we let down. I think if we're confident enough to play 100 percent a whole game, then we'll have a lot better results."

A couple wins over two top teams might help erase the feeling of an early season conference loss.

"It will be tough if we don't pull [the next four games] out," Isidor said. "But I think we're going to pull out some of these big wins and it will be great for our confidence."