Nothing could go right last night for the No. 10 Penn State women's lacrosse team as mistakes and missed opportunities plagued the team from start to finish in a 16-5 loss at the hands of No. 11 Penn.

The Quakers (9-1) could seemingly do no wrong as they shredded the defense of the Nittany Lions (7-3, 0-1 ALC) with ease and turned away every counter-attack Penn State could offer up.

"Penn is a great team and Penn deserved to win that game," Lions coach Suzanne Isidor said. "But we should never get beat like that... We just got our butts kicked."

After the game, which was Penn State's worst loss of the season, neither Isidor nor the players could find any redeeming aspect in their play. Even Penn State defender Renee Cipro, one of the nation's best at her position, committed crucial errors that resulted in scores for the Quakers.

Less than a minute into the game, Cipro turned the ball over in front of her own net, resulting in an easy goal for Penn attacker Chrissy Muller. After Lions attacker Karen Long narrowly missed a chance to respond, ringing a shot off the top post, Penn went the other way, eventually turning another Cipro turnover into its second goal of the night.

"I definitely feel like I let the team down in the beginning," Cipro said. "That stings for me, but no one really stepped up from that point on."

The Quakers would build a 4-0 lead before Penn State finally got on the board with a goal from midfielder Mariel Bryan. However, Penn's defense, which has allowed only six goals a game this season, would not surrender much more than that, reaching halftime with a 9-3 lead.

"We had no leadership out on the field," Isidor said. "We had seniors out there making key mistakes."

The Lions' woes continued in the second half.

Penn was able to keep their offense at bay and wouldn't concede many quality scoring chances. Those shots that did get through were often stopped by Quakers goalkeeper Sarah Waxman, who frustrated Penn State all game.

Lions attacker Marisa Lozano's goal early in the second half cut the Quakers' lead to 9-4, but that was the closest Penn State would get. It continued to falter late into the game, while Penn only seemed to get stronger, denying the Lions any chance at a comeback.

"We were really prepared for that game and we just didn't play the way that we know we can play," Long said. "Some of our players didn't show up, but other players didn't step up when they needed to. We just fell apart."

The Lions will have to regroup quickly with No. 2 North Carolina and No. 3 Maryland coming to town this weekend.

They will also play No. 1 Northwestern on the road next week, concluding a stretch that will test the team's mettle.