Before practice on Tuesday, the No. 6 Penn State field hockey team spent more than an hour watching tape from Sunday's 1-0 loss to No. 12 Indiana.

Filing out of the locker room, the team headed toward the field with memories of a weekend gone wrong and the vision to fix its flaws. Its main plan of attack: Focus on the defense.

"Our defense was so bad the other day, we just need to regroup," Penn State coach Char Morett said. "You want to play well and you obviously want to win the game. We didn't play well. We didn't win the game."

The Nittany Lions (13-4, 4-2 Big Ten) will have the chance to show how they've revamped their defense when they take on Northwestern (7-11, 1-5) in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament today at 3 p.m. in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Penn State defeated Northwestern 3-1 in the regular season. In that game, sophomore Allison Scola notched three goals, her first natural hat trick. The Lions, however, know they can't overlook the Wildcats (7-11, 1-5) after last weekend's games.

Against Iowa and Indiana, the team did not play well. Scola scored the only Penn State goal in a 1-0 victory against Iowa on Friday night. On Sunday, something was missing on both ends of the field for the Lions. After a 1-0 loss to the Hoosiers, the team has had only a few days to sort out what went wrong.

"To quote Joe Paterno, we played lousy," Morett said. "Our attack was disconnected. What's important for us is to focus on the changes we have to make in practice and not dwell on the mistakes. Recognizing that the opportunity now is in front of them, that's the next step."

Last year, the Lions began the Big Ten Tournament after going 6-0 in regular season Big Ten play. After a first round bye, Penn State lost to Michigan, who ended up being the tournament champion.

Despite experiencing a drop in morale after Sunday's game, both the offense and the defense have taken Char's harsh criticism to heart, coming together in practice and working toward a common goal.

"We realized that stuff was lacking and things needed to be worked on so we took this week and we really worked on those things," sophomore Jen Long said. "We are really encouraging each other and trying to stay together as a team. We are going into this weekend really confident and prepared."

Confidence will be crucial for the Lions. If they beat Northwestern today, they will move on to the second round to play either Michigan State or Indiana. Regardless of opponent, Penn State knows it cannot make the mistake of overlooking anyone.