A 27-game unbeaten streak halted.

A two-year winning streak at Jeffrey Field ended.

A 31-game Big Ten winning streak snapped.

In a year that has seen three monumental accomplishments end, there is still one streak left to extend for the Penn State women's soccer team. The Nittany Lions have won eight consecutive Big Ten titles, and they are not about to surrender that streak, too.

Penn State (7-3-2, 3-1 Big Ten) travels to Purdue (10-2-2, 3-1) tomorrow at 4 p.m. and Indiana (7-2-3, 4-0) on Sunday at noon. It will try to regain the Big Ten lead after a loss to Illinois last Sunday.

The loss knocked Penn State out of first place, where it has comfortably been for eight straight years. The game with Indiana is particularly important, since the Hoosiers are 4-0 in the Big Ten and share first place with Illinois. Even though Penn State has only lost twice to Purdue and Indiana in its 12-year history, the team is not taking its competition lightly.

"This is gonna be a tough weekend for us playing two of the top teams in the Big Ten," sophomore forward/midfielder Sheree Gray said. "This will be a challenge for us. We didn't like that feeling of losing, and we don't want that [loss] to cause us to not have a Big Ten Championship."

The Lions are determined not to repeat the same mistake as last week. A breakdown in team communication and aggression allowed Illinois to score three second-half goals. Intensity, for a full 90 minutes, is essential if the team wants to return with two wins.

"A lot of it is our mentality," senior midfielder/defender Sarah Dwyer said. "In the Illinois game, we lost focus in the second half. Right now we're really just gonna focus on the details and put together an entire good game this weekend as well as get ourselves back in the competition for the Big Ten [title]."

According to head coach Paula Wilkins, both Purdue and Indiana are well-organized and aggressive offensively, and should be a test for the Lions' inconsistent defense, which has only managed three shutouts all year.

If the Lions are going to shut down these teams and have another dominating performance, a total team effort will be important. This week, the Lions have stressed the group effort, mentioning that the tendency to play individually was another contributing factor to the loss against Illinois.

"We just need to be a lot more positive on the field and just play as a team," Gray said. "The first half of the Illinois game was great because we played as a team and in the second half we got a little individual and scattered around and that's pretty much what cost us the game. I think as long as we [play as a team], we'll be OK."