The No. 18 Penn State women's lacrosse team was able to end its skid of conference losses yesterday and get its first American Lacrosse Conference (ALC) win of the season with a 9-7 victory over No. 19 Ohio State in the ALC tournament.

The team will now face No.1 Northwestern at 5:30 p.m. today in the ALC semifinal at Johns Hopkins' Homewood Field.

The Nittany Lions (9-7, 1-4 ALC) were looking for redemption after a four-game losing streak and a last-second, one-point loss to the Buckeyes two weeks ago.

"This was a great win for our team," head coach Suzanne Isidor said. "No one was ready for the season to end or lose to Ohio State for the second time this season."

Yesterday's game was as back-and-forth as it gets, with seven ties and four lead changes throughout the entire game. The Lions were able to take the lead with 10:32 left in the second half and never looked back.

Senior attacker Karen Long netted three goals, giving her eight goals in the last two games, and junior midfielder Kim Kontson scored two goals for the Lions.

"This game was exactly like the last one, except this time we were able to capitalize on our opportunities and come away with the victory," senior defender Renee Cipro said.

With the score tied at 7 with 11 minutes left in the game, Penn State's defense was able to hold the Buckeyes scoreless, while ending the game on a two-goal run.

Isidor has had no qualms in the past about expressing how the team's defense has struggled; yet in this game, she was more positive when it came to the play of the defense.

"Every person on the defense stepped up," Isidor said. "The defense played with a sense of urgency, and each player realized that every person on the team had their back."

With the win, the team will now face the Wildcats, a team that it is greatly familiar with after losing to them earlier this season at Northwestern, 19-8.

"Northwestern is a great team with a ton of weapons, so to beat them we have to play the best we have played the entire year and make sure to control time of possession," Isidor said.

After getting their first conference win against the Buckeyes, the team goes into the game against Northwestern with more confidence that it can beat the No. 1 team in the country.

"Being the bottom seed in the tournament allows us to play with no pressure," Cipro said. " No one expects us to win, so we just have to go out and play the way we know we are capable. And if we do that, we have a great chance to win."