A win against the No. 1 team in the nation tends to take some of the sting out of a losing weekend.

Even though the Penn State softball team left Florida with a sub .500 record yesterday, Penn State coach Robin Petrini said she was proud of her team's effort.

The Nittany Lions (2-3, 1-0 Big Ten) beat Michigan and Longwood this weekend in Gainesville, Fl., but dropped two games to No. 21 DePaul and one to Florida in the teams kickoff weekend.

"Minus Longwood, we played some top-caliber teams. They are quality programs with quality pitching," Petrini said.

After dropping the first two games of the weekend, losing to DePaul 1-0 and Florida 3-1, Penn State was heading into Saturday looking to change its bad fortune against a team that is unfamiliar with being on the tail end of momentum swings.

The Lions got on the board early against Michigan, taking advantage of the lone walk allowed by pitcher Lorilyn Wilson in the second inning. Destinie Chavez drove in the game's only run with a line drive up the middle.

Starting pitcher Jenn Reynolds put her team in position to win, going 4.1 strong innings, allowing 5 hits and no walks while striking out four. After loading the bases with one out in the fifth, she was relieved by the ace of the staff, Missy Beseres.

Reynolds said she didn't feel any added pressure, even while pitching against the returning champs.

"You have to treat everyone the same," Reynolds said. "I knew if you think too highly, you're probably not going to play to your ability."

"We knew what Missy and Ashley could do, but we were really pleased with JR's performance and innings against Michigan," Petrini said.

Beseres made quick work of the Michigan lineup and made sure to refuse the batters second introductions to her arsenal of pitches as she retired eight in a row, six by strikeout. The combined effort was enough to maintain the one run lead as the Lions went on to win, 1-0.

"This tournament sets up the foundation for our season," shortstop Jen Acunto said. "We had all the confidence in the world going into that game. [The Michigan win] is good for our reputation, not only in the conference, but across the country."

Acunto started her season right where she left off a year ago - at or near the top of the team's offensive leaderboards in almost every category. In the victory against Longwood, Acunto came up with the bases loaded and blasted a double to right center field to plate all three runners. It was the teams' only multi-run inning of the weekend.

"I knew that there were two outs, bases loaded and I knew one run wasn't gonna get it done," Acunto said. "I ended up seeing a good pitch and just went with it."

Ashley Esparza also set a career high, striking out 12 batters while finishing her first complete game of the year, and getting the win, evening her record at 1-1.

Esparaza said she couldn't remember the last time she'd put up strikeout numbers that high.

"I want to say high school or something like that," Esparaza said. "It felt good to come out the beginning of the season and kind of dominate."

Petrini was sold on the team's defense and pitching going into the weekend, but was not so optimistic on how the offense would prevail against true life pitching. Her concerns were proven warranted. Penn State outscored its opponents 7-5 overall, but the 5-0 shutout of Longwood was the only game the Lions were able to put a crooked number on the score board; However, Petrini said she's not worried.

"We started to hit the ball pretty well, but just didn't get the hits to win those games," Petrini said. "Although you won't see it in the box score, we were making solid contact. We were just hitting it right at people."