While their fellow students were celebrating the weekend's Blue-White game festivities, the Penn State women's rugby team had other plans. The Lady Ruggers competed in the rounds of 16 and eight at the national Division I Women's Collegiate Rugby Playoffs.

At the end of the weekend, the Lady Ruggers were another step closer to a national title, advancing to a final-four matchup against Ohio State with a victory over Army.

On Saturday, Penn State was matched up against Northern Iowa. The Lady Ruggers found themselves in a close game at halftime, in the lead by a slim 15-8 margin. In the second half, the team exploded for 22 points and cruised to a 37-8 victory.

"The team adjusted well to the conditions. It was very wet and muddy, and that limited our normal wide game, so we played tight and used our forwards more," Penn State head coach Pete Steinberg said.

The win earned the Lady Ruggers a berth in the round of eight, and a matchup with Army on Sunday.

Entering the contest, Steinberg said that intensity would be a key factor in the game.

"We need to match the intensity of their forwards; they have a very strong and athletic set of forwards. If we can win our own ball we have a great chance," he said.

Penn State did just that, and after two successful tries, found itself in the lead at halftime, 12-5.

"We knew Army would come in fired up and we did a good job of matching their intensity," second row player Rosemary Daley said. "We struggle sometimes in the first 10 minutes of games, today we came out really hard."

Daley opened the scoring in the second half, converting a try as the result of an eight-person scrum, to put Penn State up 17-5.

"I felt at this point that we had won the game," Steinberg said.

No one told Army that the game was over, and it mounted several strong offensive pushes. Army went on the attack, and forced Penn State to play a defensive game deep in its own half.

"We spent 15 consecutive minutes of the second half defending our line with some very tenacious defense," Steinberg said.

Eventually, the Army onslaught was too much for the Lady Ruggers to repel, and Army scored a try to make the score 17-10.

Finding themselves ahead by just seven points, Penn State needed to refocus.

"We got together and collected ourselves and put together one of our best drives of the season," Daley said.

The drive ended with fullback Diana Kline punching in a try to seal the 24-10 victory for the Lady Ruggers.

"It was a very professional game, but it was a matter of us wanting it more than they did," Rugger's captain Amber Benlian said.

Steinberg shared Benlian's view.

"It was a game that we didn't play well, but played really hard," he said.

With the win, Penn State advances to Stanford, California on May 5 for a match with Ohio State. As the No. 7 seed, the Buckeyes had a tougher road to the final four teams, defeating No. 2 ranked Virginia on Sunday.

"It was a bit of an upset," Steinberg said of Ohio State's victory. "Ohio State stepped up and played really well against Virginia."

In the two weeks preceding the game, Benlian said that the Lady Ruggers will need to stay intense and mentally prepare themselves for Ohio State. Steinberg agreed, but added that fitness is another key issue.

"One big challenge for us will be our fitness; we are not as fit as we have been in the past," he said. "We need to stay focused and have a commitment to fitness."

The matchup with Ohio State is somewhat of a rivalry as well. Each season, when the school's football teams face each other, the rugby teams also make the trip.

"We are very excited to meet up in the final four," Steinberg said. "We beat them the last time we played them, but they are a different team since then."

Overall, Steinberg is pleased with the weekend's results, but remains realistic.

"I'm happy with the wins this weekend, but there's still a lot we need to do to become national champions," he said.

Perhaps soon, the Lady Ruggers will get the chance to celebrate with their classmates. In the next two weeks, however, it's all about focus and intensity for the Lady Ruggers, as they pursue their goal of bringing another national title back to Happy Valley.