In a 129-108 loss to No. 20 Virginia Saturday afternoon, the No. 12 Penn State's women's swimming and diving team jumped the gun on Halloween by giving away a few treats of its own.

"I'm a little disappointed we didn't put a whole meet together," Penn State coach Bill Dorenkott said. "We had some solid racing, but we gave up some races we shouldn't have. [Virginia] came to win today."

The relay team of junior Sarah Haupt, senior Kristen Woodring, junior Amberle Bierdermann, and senior Dee Dlugonski won the first event of the meet, the 400-yard medley relay, with a time of 3:44.92. Penn State also placed second in the event.

The Lions' six-second advantage on the third-place Virginia team had fans filling the McCoy Natatorium with noise and had momentum in Penn State's favor, which matched Dorenkott's goals.

"I want to compete with some passion. I want to make sure that we're doing things right," Dorenkott said prior to the meet, referring to execution of race plans.

However, the Lions appeared to lose the passion, execution and momentum. Whereas Dorenkott told the sound technician to "turn it up" as he played pre-race music before the fourth women's event, he was not as eager to celebrate following later events.

After the 200-yard butterfly, Dorenkott talked with Bierdermann, a sophomore who had finished a close third behind two Virginia swimmers.

"That's a lack of focus," Dorenkott said. "Let's wake up ... you gave both those girls that race."

Over the final 10 women's events, Penn State finished first in just one while placing second in six. Since there is a great difference in points between the two -- 9 for first, 4 for second -- Virginia built a growing lead event by event.

In a competitive meet that was winnable for Penn State, senior divers Alison Riccobono and Corey Pagnotta, and as sophomore freestyler Nikki Collins turned in solid performances.

Riccobono, named Big Ten Women's Diver of the Week for a dominating performance at West Virginia two weeks ago, won the 1- and 3-meter diving events with scores of 279.9 and 295.28, respectively. Both scores were high enough to make NCAA National Qualifier cuts. Pagnotta clinched second with a score of 252 in the 1-meter and 259.35 in the 3-meter.

"Today, what we worked on in practice showed up in the meet," Penn State diving coach Craig Brown said. "We are dead on target training-wise, kids competed really aggressively."

Collins, also two weeks removed from Big Ten weekly honors, achieved personal bests in both the 500- and 1,000-yard freestyle events. She won the 500 with an NCAA Nationals Cut time of 4:51.40. She placed second in the 1,000 with a time of 9:54.82.

"[It's a] very good day for me. That overjoys me so much," Collins said. "I did my part, help scoring points."

Collins' 500 freestyle win showed the heart with which Dorenkott wanted Penn State to swim.

After initially falling behind Virginia's Kimi Kelly, who won the 1,000-yard freestyle, Collins made it a duel with two laps to go and won by 0.21 seconds. She was so drained after the race that one teammate remarked, "She's gonna die."

The next three weeks will be critical for the team in terms of training, as it has no meets until traveling to St. Bonaventure on Nov. 19.