The No. 2 Wildcats (11-1, 2-0) started the game on fire, scoring five goals before Penn State could get its first. The Lions were unable to find an answer to Northwestern's potent offense and defense, only scoring two goals in the first half, leaving the field at halftime down by six.

"We just talked about capitalizing, and we looked at the numbers in the first half and we were even, almost even in the first half," Penn State women's lacrosse coach Suzanne Isidor said. "We knew that if we capitalize our possessions we'd be OK."

As the second half began, however, the Lions were an entirely different team. The momentum shifted and they scored seven goals, bringing them within four goals of tying. It looked as if Penn State would make a comeback.

But the comeback never happened after a turning point for the Wildcats. The Lions had a fast break down the field and an open shot on goal, but the shot went right into the goalie's legs. Northwestern quickly picked up the ball, sent it downfield and scored to make it 14-9.

Following the momentum-changing goal, Northwestern shut down any chance Penn State had, scoring five more unanswered goals in the final 10 minutes.

"We had moments of brilliance. I thought we were awesome at times and then we had lapses, and lapses against the [No. 2] team in the country can turn out pretty badly," Isidor said. "But I thought we made great strides."

Penn State finally showed the intensity on offense that it has been looking for all season. In the first half, the Lions took 16 shots but only scored two goals. In the second half, they took 13 shots but scored on seven of them.

Draw controls were the main setback for the Lions. In the first half, they had four draw controls but capitalized on none of them. In the second half, they only scored once off four more draw controls.

"That's brutal. That's huge. That can't happen. We work on free position shots every day in practice, and we are a good team on them," Isidor said. "That would have made a huge difference."

Junior Karen Long and sophomore Jessi Lieb supplied the main offense for the Lions. Long had three goals, one assist and added four points to her total score of 10. Lieb scored twice and got two points. Four other Lions each contributed one goal.

"We did not execute everything perfectly, but we fought from start to finish. It would have been easy for them to throw in the towel early on when we went down," Isidor said. "But there was so much fight and that is what we are taking from this game."

Penn State will have a week off before it takes on two American Lacrosse Conference foes, Ohio State and Ohio. Playing with the same intensity and fight is the only way the Lions will be able to finish the season at .500 and return to the NCAA Championships.