After Oct. 27's 1-0 victory against Iowa, Penn State field hockey coach Char Morett stared at the opposing team as it packed up. She couldn't help but praise the play of the Hawkeyes even though her team pulled out a close win.

"Their record does not reflect their talent, that's for sure," Morett said. "They're going to be a tough team in the tournament."

Morett's prediction was spot on as the Hawkeyes defeated the No. 6 Nittany Lions (15-5, 4-2 Big Ten) in the Big Ten tournament championship game yesterday, 2-1.

Iowa (12-8, 2-4 Big Ten) got on the board early with a goal from Lauren Pfeiffer 12 minutes into the game. Pfeiffer connected on a penalty stroke six minutes later to put the Hawkeyes up 2-0. Mallory Weisen scored on a penalty swing of her own near the end of the first half to give Penn State its only goal of the game.

Although the shot totals for both teams were equal, Penn State provided some dangerous shots, including a laser shot from Shaun Banta that hit the post and an Annelise Legel goal that was revoked because it was too high. The chances were there, but the Lions could not capitalize to bring home their fifth conference tournament championship.

When the Lions lost out on a share of the Big Ten regular season title last weekend against Indiana, they knew they were the only ones to blame. The energy and fire wasn't there, but it definitely came back this weekend for all three of the tournament games.

"We didn't have the effort against Indiana," Morett said. "We had effort today we just couldn't find the goal. We actually had some decent shots on goal. We had some nice offensive buildup towards the goal in the first half. We were going into the goal hard, we just needed to go in more composed."

Penn State was on the brink of elimination in the semifinal game against Michigan State on Saturday. After a scoreless first half, the Lions gave up a goal with only eight minutes left in regulation. With only 1:59 left on the game clock, Banta hit the back of the cage for the tying goal. Junior Kiersten Wood had the game-winner in overtime.

After last weekend's poor showing of energy, the team came back and found a way to win.

"We didn't get down or anything," Wood said.

"We came back and fought right away. Once we scored, we were confident and got the momentum. When we got into overtime we knew we had a strong overtime team and we would connect and finish so we were excited."

The defense provided an "outstanding" performance in all three games, especially during the 2-0 quarterfinal victory over Northwestern. It was a dominating win with goals from Wood and Weisen, who both finished the tournament with two goals and an assist each.

Penn State's performance this weekend is expected to result in a berth in the NCAA tournament set for this weekend at Wake Forest. The selected tournament teams will be announced on Tuesday. If the Lions do get an invitation, they are determined to keep up with their play this weekend.

"We're obviously really disappointed that we lost, but I think we're all pretty proud of how we fought through the whole tournament," Wood said. "We played Penn State hockey, and it was great. We just came up short in the end. We're disappointed, but we're ready to see if we make the tournament and see how that goes."