If you happened to hear a raucous cheer resonating from somewhere in State College on Sunday afternoon, chances are it was Denay Riley and the rest of the No. 11 Penn State women's soccer team.

"My whole house -- I live with 13 other soccer girls -- just started screaming with excitement," Riley said.

The junior defender was referring to her teammates' reaction when they all discovered that they had moved into sole possession of first place in the Big Ten after then-frontrunner Indiana was upset by Northwestern.

"We were so happy because now we have a chance to be No. 1. We were happy and excited and smiling. It put us in a really good mood," Riley said.

The Nittany Lions were already in a pleasant mood following their performance against interstate rival Ohio State earlier in the day.

Hosting the Buckeyes at Jeffrey Field, Penn State parlayed an early goal from freshman forward Katie Schoepfer into a 1-0 victory that continued the team's impressive resurgence ever since losing to Illinois two weeks ago.

Currently, Penn State is two wins and one Indiana loss or tie away from extending its conference title streak to nine straight seasons.

"We've all wanted to go back in time and completely change that situation," senior midfielder Ali Krieger said of the Oct. 1 loss that knocked her team out of the conference's top spot. "Since then, we've been playing so well. It sucked that we lost, but to turn around and play like this has been a great feeling for all of us."

The Lions have held the opposition scoreless since surrendering three second-half goals to the Fighting Illini and are unbeaten in their last four games. Thanks to freshman goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher and a stalwart -- albeit makeshift -- defense, Penn State has shut out the opposition for 186 minutes and boasts the conference's fourth-best goals against average.

Factor in Sunday's events with how well the Lions are playing, and the eight-time defending Big Ten champions are in the driver's seat to repeat.

"We control our own destiny instead of waiting for other teams to help us out," Krieger said.

"I'm just so thrilled that the freshmen have the possibility of getting their first ring and that we, the seniors, have a chance of getting the complete set."

Krieger and Co. will conclude the Big Ten regular season this weekend with two home contests against Wisconsin and Northwestern.

"We learned from [Sunday] that Northwestern isn't a team to take easily," Krieger said. "We can't be joking around during practice this week, saying 'We're No.1' and then all of the sudden have a hiccup."