"We're going to Stanford!"

An excited mother couldn't contain her joy, but she wasn't the only won wearing a smile from ear to ear.

All the fans knew it.

There was still twenty minutes of rugby to be played but for the devoted fans of the Penn State Lady Ruggers, the game was over and they had a trip to plan, as they were heading to the Final Four in California.

Penn State passed its test winning 43-7 in yesterday's Elite Eight game against UC San Diego. Add to that a 22-15 victory against Stanford Saturday, and it is safe to say the Lady Ruggers had a pretty good weekend.

"We play well with the wind behind us," Penn Sate women's rugby coach Peter Steinberg said. "I didn't expect the team to score 43 points, but I'll take it."

Happy Valley was blessed with beautiful weather this weekend and with that came a strong wind. The wind played a major factor in both games.

"Whenever you play with the wind you have a good chance of gaining territory," Steinberg said. "We had the wind at our backs in the second half and were really able to turn things up."

Penn State started out playing into the wind, but was able to score first when freshman Diana Klein put down the first of her two scores on the day.

"They had the wind in the first half today," Steinberg said. "We turned it around, seven nothing us, and that was just phenomenal."

With the wind finally behind them, the Lady Ruggers opened up the second half with a renewed confidence.

UCSD came out with a small spark but after consecutive scores the Lady Ruggers had 19-point lead and sense of security.

Instead of just running out the clock, Penn State added to its lead going up 43-0 at one point.

"The score doesn't really reflect how the game was," Klein said. "[UCSD] is a tough team, we just played with more urgency. We knew we had to pick it up in the second half, and we did."

Having the game at Penn State wasn't the only thing working against UCSD. They had a long and awkward road in getting here and they were playing with a very thin squad.

"We didn't have a lot of depth," UC San Diego women's rugby coach Carla Smith said. "We had a lot of injuries, and [Penn State] is such a fast team. We just ran out of energy."

Penn State had been taking appropriate measures to make sure that it would be able to keep up the pace all game and they paid off.

"We had our best team on the field all game," Steinberg said. "Even with the subs. It's a luxury to be able to put fresh legs in and still maintain the high level of play."

In Saturday's win against Stanford Penn State relied on tough, physical play and multiple scores from one of the team's leaders, Kim Magini.

The Lady Ruggers have the next two weeks off to prepare for the Final Four. There will be quite a few familiar faces also making the trip. Navy, Princeton and the University of Virginia round out the four. All teams from the Mid-Atlantic division, the division that is home to Penn State.

"We're playing foes that we know quite well," Steinberg said. "So it'll be what our team does in the next two weeks that determines the outcome."