The whistle blew in the middle of a drill in practice.

Penn State field hockey coach Char Morett wanted more energy out of her players in practice and would not let them continue until the drill was done right.

The No. 6 Nittany Lions (17-2, 6-0 in the Big Ten) huddled together, put their hands in the middle and on the count of three, yelled out, "Team."

The message was sent to Morett's squad, the aggressiveness picked up and the team practiced as if it was a game-time situation. The passes were quick and the defense was intense.

This continued until redshirt senior back Molly Schriver got hit by an errant ball to the face.

Practiced stopped as the team gathered around her. Schriver went to the sideline, took a sip of water and came back onto the field.

The Lions are focused and is ready for this weekend's Big Ten Championships where a ball to the face is a minor obstacle to their goal of being conference champions.

The tournament on Friday is in Iowa City, Iowa, but the top-seeded Lions will not be competing until noon tomorrow because of a first-round bye.

They will take on the winner of today's Iowa-Michigan contest.

Morett feels that since her team already won the Big Ten regular season title, her team has a bull's eye on its chest.

"I told them that the other day," Morett said. "We just need to play with a lot of energy, enthusiasm and confidence and know that we earned that No. 1 seed."

The Lions went undefeated in the Big Ten and at one point this season had a 17-game winning streak.

But in the Lions' last game, they lost 3-2 in overtime to No. 4 North Carolina.

After two months of winning and to end the season with a loss, Morett feels that she does not have any reason to be concerned.

"So much energy and focus was put into conference play," Morett said.

By the time the Lions beat No. 9 Indiana last Friday, they had to prepare for a top-five team two days later.

The loss though has fueled the team in the practice all week. But the Lions still do not know who they are going to play.

Morett does not consider not knowing whom they are playing as a burden to her team.

"Just watching Iowa and Michigan, knowing they're going to be our next opponents, I think we match up evenly with both of them," Morett said. "I don't think we'll practice any differently for either team."

The Lions have been practicing very focused, and seem almost machine-like in their drills.

The team has depended on strong offensive surges from juniors Shaun Banta and Annelise Legel, and stellar defense from junior Carey Maser all year and look to continue the trend into the postseason.

They also look to last week's Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week, sophomore Kiersten Wood, to continue her hot streak.

In the postseason the streaks, records, and awards do not matter -- only winning is what counts.

The Lions even though have had a record-breaking winning streak, still have a loss in their last game of the year. Morett hopes that her team will look to take Schriver's example of getting up after they are down, and continue on to win the Big Ten Title.

"Normally Molly getting hit in the face would be something we'd all be talking about," Morett said. "But this team is so focused right now."