Even when the season seemed to be at its bleakest, Penn State men's soccer coach Barry Gorman never showed that he was worried about his team.

As the losses and injuries piled on for the Nittany Lions (4-7-2), every week Gorman knew that eventually things would click for his team and everything would eventually come together.

Finally, coming off a weekend where the team had two games without a loss, things are looking up for the injury-depleted Lions.

After two straight 2-1 losses where the Lions had leads early in the game, Gorman has been around long enough to sense that winning was inevitable.

Even though his players may not have been feeling the same way.

"It's been so long that things don't bug you anymore or surprise you," Gorman said. "It's got to be frustrating for these kids."

Gorman is in his 18th season as head coach of the Lions, accumulating a 164-84-17 record. Though he has mostly been successful, he has also seen his share of teams underachieve.

In 1989, Gorman won the Atlantic 10 Conference championship with a team that went 10-10-3. That team picked up its play late in the season and rode the wave of success into the Atlantic 10 tournament.

After two straight Atlantic 10 titles, his following teams at Penn State failed to win a championship until 1993 where they won the Big Ten title.

Coming into this season with high expectations, the injury-plagued Lions have finally started to settle on a lineup, and Gorman credits his team's defense for the recent success.

"I think our defense has been playing well, we're just unsettled with injuries and getting people out there," Gorman said. "Credit to the kids, they're battling through that stuff."

With almost the entire team having game experience due to injuries, the Lions, once healthy, will be a very deep team.

Starting new players every week makes this team different than teams from prior years, in that any player on the bench can step onto the field and have experience in game-time situations.

Though at first playing all of the young players seemed like a negative, the experience of all of the players now excites Gorman for the future.

Spreading confidence throughout the team is something that Gorman knew a simple win would bring.

Gorman has seen it all as a coach and hopes that his positive attitude spreads throughout his team and will continue to have weekends like last weekend.

With the injured players finally healing due to the week off between games, Gorman wants to keep the success coming.

"There's nothing that breeds confidence more than winning," Gorman said. "You have to get those wins under your belt."