On Saturday afternoon, two of the fiercest animals squared off in a battle not in the wild, but on a lacrosse field. The creatures were the No. 14 Nittany Lions of Penn State and No. 4 Tigers of Princeton.

Playing an extremely well-balanced and experienced opponent at Holuba Hall, the Penn State women's lacrosse team (3-3) let turnovers plague it in its 17-9 defeat at the claws of the Tigers (2-2). Giving the ball up 18 times, Princeton was able to control the time of possession.

The Lions put together runs when the game was within reach, but never were able to mount a successful, persistent attack.

"You can't just play in spurts when you're playing the best teams in the country," Penn State women's lacrosse coach Suzanne Isidor said. "We have to find a way to put together an entire game."

In its last three games, Penn State has gotten down early in the first half and has never been able to recover despite some good efforts.

The Lions also had difficulty in their ability to take shots against the solid Princeton defense, which was able to swarm the Penn State offense and cut off its attacks.

"We're not talking care of the ball. I think we had better movement, but we just didn't have it long enough," Isidor said. "We had a lot of difficulties with that."

The Lions were led by three midfielders, each with two goals: senior Shari Maslin, who also had two assists, sophomore Jessi Lieb and freshman Megan McGuire.

McGuire's successful day on the field was part in thanks to the game plan of shaking up the lineup in order to have a feel for how certain players played with one another. Normal contributors Linsey Shea and Lori Havrilla spent most of the game watching from the sideline.

Sophomore Jess Boccio got the chance to start in net for the first time this season. She only made five saves as Princeton connected on 17 of its 31 shots.

"We're really just trying to find the right combination, I think Megan McGuire did a great job. I thought she really stepped up, she's being doing a great job in practice," Isidor said. "Something's not working, so we're just trying to find something that will."

The loss marked the Lions' third in a row before a challenging upcoming road trip against Temple, No.7 Maryland and No.8 North Carolina.

"We fell apart a little bit; we can't really dwell on it," senior Lauren Bryan said. "We have a big week coming up. We're just trying to focus on those games."

Even though the loss to Princeton was disappointing, the season is still just underway and the team is using it as a basis to work from and improve.

"We're using this as a learning experience," junior Lindsay Dutch said. We lost to a good team. We expected to lose, they are No. 4 and we're No. 14. We're not really meshing as a team right now."

Although the team is adjusting to lineup changes and watching film to break down their attacks and defensive schemes, the Lions are hoping to feel the mesh at the back of the goal during their upcoming three-game road trip.