Until Saturday, nobody in the country would have been able to boast that they got Tiffany Weimer to blink in a staring contest.

She ended a scoreless game with UCLA back in September with an overtime goal on a penalty kick. In the first round of the Big Ten Tournament against host team Michigan, she converted another penalty kick to tie the game with 24 seconds left in regulation.

She even kept her composure when her college career was 45 minutes from ending as No. 1-seed Penn State trailed No. 4-seed Texas A&M 1-0 at the half, as she scored the Nittany Lions' second and third goals for a 3-1 advantage with 15:16 to play.

But after freshman Allie Long drew a foul in the box to give the Lions a penalty kick, Weimer finally blinked as she looked to ice the game and record her second hat trick of the season.

Stepping before the "X" 12 yards in front of Aggies goalkeeper Kati Jo Spisak, the two engaged in the customary staredown trying to read what the other was thinking.

A weak attempt from the right foot of Weimer directly at Spisak was easily corralled, keeping the game in doubt and leaving Weimer 6-for-7 on penalty kick attempts on the season.

"After I had cleared it, she turned around and said that I scared the 'uh' out of her," Spisak said, censoring herself.

Weimer did wind up atoning for the mental blunder. On a serve into the box from junior defender Heather Tomko, Weimer headed the feed into the lower-right hand corner of the goal, for her first ever postseason hat trick and fourth career three-goal game.

Weimer had no problem admitting that she had been psyched out by Spisak, a former teammate on the national U-21 team.

"I'm mad about the PK, but she scared me," Weimer said. "I've known her for a while and she just stared right into my eyes. That was pretty intense. She scared me."

Spisak is a fairly imposing figure in net. At 6-foot-2 with cropped hair in a solid yellow uniform, the senior is regarded as the best goaltender in Texas A&M history, a goalie that had not allowed more than two goals all season before allowing four to Penn State.

Rather than make excuses for Spisak, Texas A&M coach G. Guerrieri offered nothing but praise for Weimer, noting that he voted for her as his M.A.C. Hermann award winner a year ago.

"We came into the game wanting to see if we could stop Weimer and the fact that she was able to get open five times doesn't speak well for us, staying on her tight enough," Guerrieri said.

"I'm sure today's not the only day that a team's come in with an intention of trying to make other people beat you. She was just dynamite. For her to get the winner and the next two is quite a compliment to her. She's a heck of a player."

The three goals in the Sweet 16 on Saturday gave her 31 on the year and may put her in position to win the award that she finished in second for last year. But it's not the hardware she covets.

"That's not something that's in my control, so why bother to think about it?" Weimer said.

"I've done all I could for this team, and that's all that matters."

National acclaim aside, Guerrieri knows friendly banter between his goalie and Penn State's forward is probably inevitable.

He said he feels that Spisak can be proud of the fact that she made one of the most clutch scorers blink, even if it was just once.

"Tiffany now with scoring three, she's gonna really gonna hear about it now," he said turning to his disappointed goalkeeper.

"But it didn't make you and you saved a penalty kick on it, so I don't know. Katie Jo can hold her head pretty high."