The No. 6 Penn State women's lacrosse team suffered its first home loss of the season yesterday when it was defeated by No. 18 Vanderbilt, 9-7, at Holuba Hall.

The Nittany Lions (6-2, 0-1 ALC) opened their American Lacrosse Conference schedule on a sour note, suffering from turnovers and defensive lapses that the Commodores (5-3, 1-1) were able to take advantage of.

"It wasn't like one person was doing really poorly," Penn State coach Suzanne Isidor said. "It was each of us doing a lot of little things that added up. And Vanderbilt did a great job of capitalizing."

The game was hotly contested from the opening draw. Vanderbilt got on the board first with a goal from attacker Margie Curran less than three minutes in. The Lions quickly responded, though, getting two goals from midfielder Jessi Lieb less than a minute apart.

Neither team was able to build more than a one goal lead until Curran gave the Commodores a 4-2 advantage in the game's 12th minute. Midfielder Anastasia Adam then put Vanderbilt up by three with 11:39 remaining in the first half.

"We couldn't put our finger on one thing that we did bad," Penn State goalkeeper Cammie Jurkowsky said. "Our defense had some lapses, I had some lapses, and our offense shot a lot lower percentage than we wanted to."

Despite the early-game struggles and the three-goal deficit, the Lions took control of the game at the outset of the second half. They scored three straight goals, getting two from attacker Mary LeNoir and one from midfielder Kerry Shea, to even the score with more than 20 minutes to play.

"It was a great comeback," Isidor said. "We knew we could come back because we did it last week. It does say a lot about the team. They're never accepting anything when they're down."

The teams traded goals for the next 10 minutes, with Penn State clawing back every time Vanderbilt grabbed the lead. However, with the game entering its final minutes and the score tied at 7, Vanderbilt midfielder Nicole Pugno put the Commodores ahead for good, scoring twice to secure the victory.

After the game, Isidor credited Vanderbilt for responding well every time the Lions seemed to be mounting an attack.

"They could have folded, but they didn't. They kept fighting," she said.

The loss is only Penn State's second of the season, but it came in the first game of conference play. Lieb was not shy about the poor timing of the setback, saying that the team needed to play with more urgency.

"It stinks," Lieb said of losing the first conference game. "But we just have to put this game in the past. We can bounce back."