When dealing with adversity, numbers have no merit.

Sure, the Penn State women's soccer team has a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and easily fought its way to a Sweet 16 appearance, beating Bucknell 6-0 Friday and West Virginia 5-2 on Sunday. And yes, it does have a 22-0-1 record.

But it hasn't taken the easy road to get there. The Nittany Lions have dealt with their share of adversity.

They've survived tough road trips to UCLA and Minnesota. Senior defender Natalie Jacobs, a Hermann Trophy candidate, was injured early in year. Senior defender and co-captain Lindsay Bach also missed some time early.

But never has Penn State's resolve been more tested than it has been in the past two weeks.

Less than two weeks ago, the Lions tied Michigan through double overtime, but lost on penalty kicks in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. Just last week, a broken right leg ended co-captain Ali Krieger's season.

Average teams wilt from adversity, but great teams thrive on it.

And that's exactly what Penn State has done.

Heading into the tournament without Krieger and after suffering the only defeat of the season, the team could have fallen apart, but instead, it pulled together and played two solid games.

Seven different Lions scored goals this past weekend, including two apiece from senior defender Jean Rettig, redshirt freshman Zoe Bouchelle and sophomore forward Aubrey Aden-Buie.

Oh, and don't forget, Penn State still has one of the nation's most dominant players in senior forward Tiffany Weimer.

The striker has 28 goals this season and was unanimously chosen as the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year.

And also, there's Wilkins, who was named Big Ten Coach of the Year for the third straight season.

She was also the co-Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2001. Wilkins is sitting at 99 wins in just five seasons.

At times this weekend, the team looked more dominant than it has all season. West Virginia had never allowed more than two goals this season until this weekend, and Bucknell didn't register a shot until the waning moments of the game.

"That was just an unbelievable team," Bucknell women's soccer coach Ben Landis said. "They changed their systems and their lineups and their personnel, and they can still flat out play."

The Lions' resilience was something that was missing from last year's team. Penn State lost two of its final three games last year, falling to Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game and then to underdog Maryland in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Penn State women's soccer coach Paula Wilkins said that last year's team spent too much time looking ahead in the tournament and didn't focus on Maryland.

But this team isn't last year's team. Despite being heavily favored against Bucknell and West Virginia, this year's version of the Lions has kept its vision at 20/20.

"The biggest thing we focused on this week was ourselves after the Michigan game," Wilkins said. "We had to take care of some things to sort out and obviously what Bucknell's going to cause us. The team did a very good job doing both."

Penn State lost in the Big Ten Tournament and it lost Krieger, but it has not lost its desire for its first national championship.

Landis believes that the Lions still have a chance to win it all.

"I don't see why not," he said. "Certainly losing Krieger hurts, but they look to have the depth. They changed their system and their personnel and scored in bunches, and that's a sign of a darn good team."

If the Lions can continue to pull together, they can easily overcome the recent setbacks.

And if that is the case, don't be surprised if Penn State finishes the season as national champions.