There are some teams who put way too much pressure on themselves. And then there is the Penn State women's cross-country team, who gives new meaning to the word.

After finishing ninth out of 29 teams in Minnesota last week, and beating all the other Big Ten teams who competed in the Roy Griak Invitational, Penn State coach Beth Alford-Sullivan evaluated her team's performance as a "C+."

With a short week to prepare, the Lions will be in South Bend, Ind. today to compete in the Adidas Notre Dame Invitational for only the second time ever.

Even though Penn State was the best Big Ten school at last weekend's meet, the best the Big Ten has to offer on paper was missing in action.

"Those weren't the hardest teams out there," senior Kayla Matrunick said.

The most notable teams who didn't compete in Minnesota, defending Big Ten champion Michigan, and second-place finisher Michigan State, will be competing in today's event.

Coming into this event in 2003, Finishlynx, a cross-country poll conducted by the Women's Intercollegiate Cross-Country Coaches Association, had the Lions ranked at No. 17.

This year, however, the Lions didn't even make it into the top 30.

So maybe extra-added pressure isn't a bad idea after all.

"We're optimistic that we have a good rest of the season ahead of us," senior co-captain Megan Gilliland said.

Once again the Lions will look for senior runner Molly Landreth to set the tone for her team and hope that junior Tracey Brauksieck can build on a strong comeback performance from a week ago.

The Lions finished third in this event last year.