Kristen Schaefer needs to finish first.
While the Nittany Lions sprint toward the midfield, touch the turf and race toward the bench during a pre-game drill, Schaefer must win.
As her teammates laugh and hustle as they complete the warm up, Schaefer, the redshirt freshman, takes a more serious approach.
It's the Penn Manor High School alum's competitive nature that's earned her a start in the last nine games for the Lions (5-9, 1-2 Big Ten).
Teammate Lauren Alloway said Schaefer is willing to do whatever it takes to ensure she will win the pregame drill, even if it means starting before Morett's command.
And when the whistle blows, things get even more intense.
"She will do anything to stop the ball," Alloway said. "If she has to dive for it, she will dive where a lot of people will stay on their feet. She will get on her knees to save it and that's good."
Schaefer redshirted her freshman season and, after being one of five Lions to sit out the 2008 season, Morett said the defender entered this year with no game experience and only minimal scrimmage experience.
The Lions have six backs on their roster, three of which are seniors, so even during spring scrimmages Schaefer was fighting for the fourth and final spot at her position.
After coming off the bench for three of the team's first five games, Schaefer's increased confidence in her skills impressed the coaches enough to put her in the starting lineup Sept. 13 against American.
"I think she's just gained confidence from sitting out and watching last year," Morett said. "What you see in Kristen is poise more than anything else."
Assistant coach Lisa Bervinchak-Love, who graduated from Penn Manor High School as well, said Schaefer's solid stick skills and passing skills have helped her become a starter.
Schaefer said fundamentals are something that she and her teammates continue to practice. Morett said Schaefer's fundamentals could partially be attributed to her on-field poise. During the Northwestern game on Oct. 9, Schaefer did a great job when she approached a ball on the end line, carried it out and maintained her composure, Morett said.
While Morett and Bervinchak-Love give the defender pointers, Schaefer gets a lot of individual advice about how to play her position from her older sister. Schaefer's sister, Lauren, was a defender at Louisville from
2005 through 2007, and Kristen said she's been following in her sister's shadow ever since her days in high school.
"It's really cool," Kristen said of playing the same position as her sister.
"We never got a chance to play them even though we all want
to, but it's just cool to share
something like that with her."
Regardless of who Schaefer gets her pointers from, her coaches and teammates know her competitive spirit remains one of her best assets.
Schaefer admitted to playing with the same intensity during her high school career and while she is just two years removed from her days at Penn Manor, old rivalries still get her fired up.
"Warwick was our biggest rival in high school," Schaefer said of the Lancaster County school. "Now when I play against Warwick players in college it's funny because you still have that burning pit inside of you that just wants to kill them out on the field. And it never goes away."
While the defender knows that she needs to stay motivated on the field, next season she will have to put the rivalry aside. Schaefer will have the opportunity to play with recruit Whitney Reddig, who is from Warwick High School.
"It's cool to play against kids that you've already played against," Schaefer said.
"I guess I'll have to push the rivalry aside and become friends with her."
