In between her matches during the Penn State women's tennis team's victory against Lehigh on Friday, the Nittany Lions No. 1 player Maaria Husain could be seen walking around wrapped head to toe in an oversized blanket.

The conspicuous eye-catcher wasn't a fashion statement, but simply Husain's way of keeping warm as the Lions (5-5) played their first outdoor match at the Sarni Tennis Center.

Despite the frigid State College weather, the Lions were able to shut sout Lehigh, 7-0. Lehigh wasn't one of the strongest teams Penn State has faced this season, but the Lions knew that adjusting to the weather would be one of the keys to getting the win.

"I'm pleased most about the fact that they came in thinking they were going to be playing indoors and an hour before the match, I told them we would play singles outdoors," Penn State coach Buffy Baker said. "I felt they just went out and took care of business outside."

The Lions won all six of their singles matches in straight sets. Husain continued her strong play in singles, goose-egging her opponent, 6-0, 6-0. No. 3 Sasha Abraham and No. 5 Andreea Nicalescu both won easily 6-1, 6-1, while No. 4 Katelyn BeVard and No. 6 Jenny Schular won comfortably. The only challenge that the Lions faced in singles was at No. 2, where Sarah Spence gritted out a 6-4, 6-4 victory.

In a change from normal match play, the teams played the doubles matches second after moving to the indoor courts.

After the site change, Lehigh was able to play stronger and get into some tighter matches. One of the main reasons for this was that the Lions switched up their pairings, leaving some players unfamiliar with their partners. At first doubles, Schular and Abraham trailed 3-0 before winning the next eight games to get the win.

Husain and Nicalescu ran out to a 7-4 lead, but got tight at the end. The duo eventually pulled out the match in a tiebreaker. The Lions sole easy doubles win was an 8-1 victory at third.

"In doubles, we started out a little slow and then just ended up settling down," Baker said. "With a team like this, you can get some big hitters, they can get a few points that you're not expecting."

Despite getting a comfortable win, Penn State still must deal with moving from indoors, which takes a bit of adjustment to get used to the new setting.

The team was able to keep itself from getting frustrated and got the confidence-building win that its string of 3-4 matches just don't allow. The Lions are optimistic that they will be able to keep up that momentum in next week's matches against Illinois and Purdue.

"After today, I feel ready and it's the middle of the season, usually it's a little difficult at this point, but right now I feel ready to go and start out a good Big Ten season," Husain said.