Something is wrong with the No. 14 Penn State women's lacrosse team and, since it cannot identify the problem, it cannot fix it. The kicker is that the problem is not focused on one specific area, but is all over the field.

The Nittany Lions began the season on a tear, destroying Colgate 19-3 and Bucknell, 19-5. In both of the games, they outshot their opponents 34-18 and 31-13. After these two blowouts, however, the team has lost three in a row and the goals are coming few and far between.

The loss of the ability to score seems to have happened sometimes in between the Bucknell game and the Virginia game. The Lions went from scoring 19 goals on Tuesday to netting less than 10 in a 12-8 loss to the Cavaliers. They rallied slightly against William & Mary, scoring 12, but still losing by two goals.

On Saturday, in its toughest game of the season so far, the team faltered and only scored nine against a Princeton squad that netted 19. The Lions only have two days to regroup and figure out what is plaguing them and why they aren't beating teams that they beat last year.

"Previous to today, we had an attack issue, just putting the ball away shooting-wise. But [Saturday], we couldn't pick one problem, one thing that went wrong," senior Lauren Bryan said. "There were a lot of things that went wrong between attack, midfield and defense."

The number of shots on goal is one area the Lions definitely need to work on. The number has severely diminished since the thrashings of Colgate and Bucknell. In the loss to William & Mary, the team only had 22 shots, which is most likely the reason why they didn't have as many goals. In Saturday's game against the Tigers, the Lions only had 19 shots to Princeton's 31 and only 15 were on goal.

The shots on goal were not the problem in the game against Virginia, however, as Penn State had nine more than the Cavaliers but still lost by four goals. A breakdown on defense and in the midfield was most likely the cause.

The Lions only had 10 draw controls and 20 ground balls and Virginia matched them in these areas. Junior goalie Cammie Jurkowsky only had nine saves in this game and seven on March 12 against the Tribe. On Saturday, the Lions decided to switch things up and put sophomore Jess Boccio in goal. It didn't go as well as planned and Boccio only had five saves on 24 shots in her first start.

"It's not the goalie's fault because it's the breakdown on the field. It's that pass you missed on the midfield that transitions to the goal," junior Lindsay Dutch said. "It's hard to pick one thing. We don't have our stuff together so we are going to figure that out this week."

The blame should not fall on one person, however, since the Lions have to play as a team to win as a team.

They have not performed to their ability in the past three games, which could also be a mental problem. Virginia, William & Mary and Princeton are all ranked higher than the Lions. Insecurity in their own ability against better teams is another problem that the Lions have to deal with.

But there is not a lot of time to dissect these problems, as the Lions will begin a long week of away games. They will meet Temple today and will then travel to College Park, Md., this weekend for two games against Maryland and North Carolina, both top-10 teams.

All they can do now is watch film and try to come together before their season is too far gone to be salvaged.