Char Morett's field hockey team is going streaking.

Penn State's coach and her No. 7 Nittany Lions cruised to an exciting 3-2 road victory over No. 13 Michigan yesterday, winning their 12th in a row, as well as creating a few other trends, such as maintaining momentum, top scorers and rock-solid defense.

"We haven't beaten them [Michigan] since I've been here," junior Annelise Legel said. "It felt good to put them in their place since they are really arrogant."

The Lions (12-1, 2-0 Big Ten) either start or finish strong but had never had both occur during the same game before yesterday's win, when the momentum seemed to linger.

"It was such an exciting game," Morett said. "There were some hairy moments when they had scoring opportunities in the first half, but we held them."

The Nittany Lions came out hungry for goals in the first half, dominating the Wolverines (6-6, 0-3) with three goals and keeping them scoreless.

"We played really well in the first half," senior captain Natalie Berrena said.

"We were all over the field putting pressure on them."

The 10-minute halftime break seemed to have satisfied the team's hunger as Michigan scored two unanswered points in the second half. The scored points came on breakaways, giving Michigan the momentum for the remainder of the game despite Penn State's defense stepping it up.

"They got a free ball up the field," Morett said. "It was unfortunate, but it [the goals] made the game so much more exciting."

Penn State had become so accustomed to its new home field that had Morett known that Michigan's field was so uneven, the team would have practiced on their former home field, Bigler Field.

"Their field was very bouncy," Morett said. "The ball skips a lot and even though they watered it, it dried out. That definitely slows the game down and it's hard to maintain momentum."

Despite the sloppy win from the field, the Lions continue to rack up impressive statistics on both sides of the ball. Junior Shaun Banta scored first off a corner shot and Legel finished out the last two of Penn State's goals, putting them in a tie for the team goal-scoring lead.

"We created a team to attack and we have three new line players that are hungry for goals," Morett said.

Senior goalkeeper Megan Akstin has six shutouts out on the year, and throughout Penn State's win streak the defense has only given up eight goals to Penn State's 48 scored.

"They were definitely better in the second half and they showed great toughness and great confidence on the field," Morett said.