Julia Trogele was jealous last year.

A filled arena, a buzz around campus and postseason play were all new experiences for the men's basketball program.

Trogele thinks it's the women's turn.

With the 2009-10 season looming, she thinks the Lady Lions can duplicate the success the men's team experienced last year and lead a turnaround of their own.

"I'm not going to lie, I was a little jealous last year of how well they did," the junior forward said. "We both want to do well and we want them to do well and we want us to do well."

Watching from a distance, coach Coquese Washington said it was great for the Lady Lions to watch the men's program finally find success.

Going into last season the men's team was coming off a mediocre 15-16 record. By season's end, it was crowned the NIT Champion.

The Lady Lions are determined to reverse last season's 11-18 record just like the men did.

"I think it kind of motivated us over the summer to do a little bit more," Washington said. "To get a little bit more prepared, to be more focused so that we could get into the postseason play ourselves."

Washington said the men's success has rubbed off on the women going into this season.

Being able to see the excitement that followed the men's program, the Lady Lions are eager to build off it.

"It was great to be a part of that," Washington said. "And I think it was definitely a good thing for our kids to see the enthusiasm and the electricity around the men's program with the success they had and our kids like that and they would like to have that same kind of experience."

Trogele said the Lady Lions spend a lot of time with the men's team in the training room and are hungry to keep up with their male counterparts.

While she doesn't think basketball can replace football at Penn State, Trogele is hopeful that a buzz around both programs would help elevate the status of Penn State basketball.

"We want to bring basketball back to Penn State," she said. "Penn State is known as a football school but we kind of want to bring the basketball program up into the limelight."

The players think this is an achievable goal.

However, before they can gather a following like the men have in the past year, they understand their play on the court must improve first.

"We should get a student section like them and have more people come for us but we have to win first," sophomore Emily Phillips said.

"The boys, they got that because they were winning. People want to see something and they want to get excitement so we have to be the one's to start that.

"We are trying to get that but it starts with us."