A combination of working a new system and the better than expected play of Temple’s Lady Owls made for a slow start on the part of the Lady Lions in their 4-2 victory last night.

“It was a classic Penn State-Temple game,” said Coach Char Morett. “It is always an aggressive game, but they came out better than we expected.”

Penn State was working with a 2-4 system hoping to open up the sidelines. Temple completely shut off those sidelines with a powerful defense and was forced to try to pass up the middle.

Temple weaved the ball through the usually stingy defense because the Lady Lions defense was flat on their paws almost the entire first half. They allowed two first-half Temple goals.

Temple’s Crystal Carr started the Lady Owl’s scoring about 11 minutes into the game, when she deflected a loose ball past Penn State goalkeeper Shelly Meister.

“I was looking for the shot,” Meister said, “and the tip supprised me, there wasn’t much I could do.”

Chris McGinley answered with a Lady Lion goal with an assist from co-captains Jen Stewart and Amy Stairs. McGinley was ranked among the top scorers in the nation and she had a hat trick in last night’s game.

Temple was quick to respond 50 seconds later when Tony Byard bounced a penalty corner shot off of the ankle of Jill Pearsall. Byard then took the ensuing penalty shot, which blew by Meister.

Penn State came out for the second half with more liveliness to their game. The Penn State defense held up to its reputation, and held the Temple offense silent for the second half. The offense punched it up a gear, and scored three second-half goals.

Jill Pearsall started the second half scoring about two minutes into the half when she slammed a penalty shot past Temple goalkeeper Lori Benner, which tied the game at 2-2.

McGinley scored the game winning goal, with assists from Stairs and Stewart once again on a penalty corner.

“She (McGinley) is a scorer,” Morett said. “Our goal was to put it into the circle hard, and that was what we did.”

Five minutes later McGinley capped the scoring with her hat trick goal, which came on a slapshot from on the right into the left corner of the goal.

It was a poor shooting match for both offenses.

“We didn’t capitalize on our opportunities,” said Stairs. “We need to capitalize.”

Penn State’s offense seemed to almost underestimate the No. 10 Lady Owls.

“They came to beat us,” said McGinley. “It is always a tough match, and we can’t take them lightly like we did in the first half.”

Penn State had only 15 shots on goal as to Temple’s 18. Temple made their shots count, Meister had 12 saves on the day, and Temple’s Benner had 9.

“I think this game helped us to prepare for the big weekend” said Stairs.

Penn State will play its first Big Ten game this Friday at Penn State.