It's a simple concept: if you have the ball, you can score.

The difficult part is actually getting the ball.

Against Penn last Wednesday, the Penn State women's lacrosse team was able to come up with 22 ground balls and 14 draw controls. Both helped carry the Nittany Lions to a 16-9 victory.

While facing North Carolina on March 27, the Lions statistically tied the Tar Heels in the loss, and after that weekend it was something the Lions wanted to get under control. It didn't happen against Loyola, a game in which Penn State scooped up just three draw controls.

"We were just focused on it," Penn State coach Suzanne Isidor said. "We were disappointed at Loyola to come up with three draws the whole game."

All three came in the second half.

Nine of the 14 controls came in the second half against the Quakers. Penn State had several scoring runs in that half. Seven goals in the second half were scored after Penn State earned possession.

Jessi Lieb grabbed four draw controls to lead the Lions. She tallied one assist, on a Lori Havrilla goal, after picking up the draw.

"I just went hard for the ball and didn't hesitate or smack it away," Lieb said.

Lieb ranks third on the team with 21 draw controls and first with 29 ground balls.

On the Lions' last goal Lindsay Dutch picked up control of the ball and sailed the ball downfield to Kristen Burke. Burke then scored. The play took a grand total of 12 seconds. Burke was the benefactor of two other goals off of the draw as well.

Dutch, Havrilla and Burke all picked up three ground balls for Penn State.

"Everyone did a great job," Isidor said. "Wherever [the ball] went we were coming up with it."

The Lions scored two goals off the draw in the first half, bringing Penn State's total to nine for the game. Penn was only able to score three goals after getting possession.

"The draw control was absolutely one of the biggest reasons [for offensive opportunities]," Burke said. "We got so many fast breaks off of that."