There are two things that no athlete can be taught. One of those things is height and the other is heart. The Penn State Behrend Women’s Basketball team may not be the biggest team in terms of height, but there is no denying that this team has heart.

The Lady Lions started off the season on a rough note as they lost to Allegheny College 84-47 in their first game of the season. The Lady Lions were outrebounded in this game 59-39, committed 24 turnovers and only shot 30.4 percent from the field. Since the season opener, the Lady Lions have been playing much better basketball. They lost to Fredonia (NY) 65-57, but they were able to shrink the rebounding margin, lessen the number of turnovers committed, shoot better from the field and get to the free throw line. After the first weekend of play, the Lady Lions sat at 0-2. However, the Lady Lions did not let a rough first week get them down.

Week two was much better for the Lady Lions, who continue to show improvement each game. They were able to defeat Wooster College (OH) 88-71. The Lady Lions were able to shoot 45.3 percent from the field, and made 24 of 28 free throws in the game. Senior guard Erika Woll scored a game high 27 points, while adding seven steals and six assists. Junior forward Emily Kinecki added 23 points and seven rebounds in the effort. Freshman forward Autumn Byes almost had a double-double as she finished with 13 points, nine rebounds, and five steals. The win put the Lady Lions at 1-2 heading into week 3 of the regular season.

On Sunday afternoon, the Lady Lions looked to start a nice non-conference win streak with Adrian College (MI) coming to the Junker Center. The game was tied at 38 heading into half, and Behrend came out strong in the 3rd quarter and took a two-point lead heading into the final quarter. Unfortunately, foul trouble hurt the Lady Lions late in the game. Constant substitutions throughout the game were necessary in order to keep Behrend in the game. It was truly a great team effort by Penn State Behrend, but the Lady Lions fell to 1-3 on the season with a 69-64 loss. The rebounding margin of 52-34 was a huge difference in this game, which helped Adrian win the game despite losing the turnover battle to Behrend 22-13.

The Lady Lions may be just 1-3 on the season, but this team is playing as hard and as tough as anybody could ask of them. The improvement from week one to week three is already tremendous. The Lady Lions will look to get back into the winning column as they face D’Youville (NY) on Wednesday at an 8:00 p.m. start in the Junker Center. On Saturday, they will face Franciscan (OH) at 3:00 p.m. in the Junker Center.

These Lady Lions may have a new look this year with a lot of young members on this team, but they are going to continue to fight and play with a lot of heart throughout this season. These girls are starting to gel as a team, and hopefully week three ends with two Lady Lion victories on the young season.