A rollercoaster performance was still good enough for the Penn State field hockey team (8-2, 1-0 Big Ten) to come away with its first Big Ten win.

The No. 8 Nittany Lions defeated Michigan State on Saturday, 3-1, to extend their winning streak to eight games.

Junior Shaun Banta scored the first goal to put the Lions in the lead at halftime. The goal brings Banta's goal-scoring streak to five games. Michigan State evened the score two minutes into the second half, but the Lions put the game away with goals by sophomore Ali Scola and junior Natalie Blasco.

Scola has a goal-scoring streak of her own, having connected in the past three games. Scola's efforts have made her second on the team, behind Banta, in both goals (5) and points (13).

"We continue to create opportunities in the circle," Penn State coach Char Morett said. "The tough thing about our team is that you look around and we have multiple people who can score, and I think that balanced scoring attack makes us dangerous. It's tough to really find one player out of the game when we have certain people that could take the ball into the circle and be a threat."

Even though the game will go down as a "W" in the record books, Morett saw a lot of things that need to be improved. One of the team's goals before the game was to maintain possession, which has been a problem in certain contests.

"I wouldn't say that we did a good job at possession," Morett said. "Michigan State did a really good job at keeping up the pressure and double teaming. We weren't smart with playing the ball back and around enough. There were moments throughout the game where we sort of lost our poise a little bit. That was disappointing."

One major factor to that loss of concentration was attributed to the absence of senior co-captain Carey Maser. Maser suffered a few stitches and some fractured bones on her cheek after being hit with a stick during practice last week, according to assistant coach Lisa Bervinchak-Love.

Maser acts as a huge voice for the defense and Morett noticed that the team missed "her presence on the field," most of all. With Maser on the sideline, sophomore Jen Long stepped up as the driving force for the defense. Long did a great job of stopping the play and getting rid of dangerous situations in front of the box, according to Morett.

"Obviously Carey is a huge player to have on the field," Long said. "It's a pretty big loss to have, but I think everybody on the defensive unit really stepped up and we worked together and we did what we needed to do"

Long attributed the team's success with intensity and a strong desire to win.

"We're just looking to grow, refine our skills, work hard, make sure that we don't retrogress and we're moving forward constantly," Long said.