BEACON SPORTS
Volleyball team enjoys success
By Matt Waronker
staff writer
With each new season there come
the expected changes that every
team must face: the addition of new
players, adjustments in team chem
istry,and even on occasion the neces
sity for brand new uniforms. For the
Penn State Behrend women’s volley
ball team, the latter proved to be
essential for the 2006 season. After
rolling through 2005 with a record
of 26-8, the Lady Lions captured
sole possession of the AMCC
Conference title, as well as the
watchful eye of every other team in
the conference. The team’s new uni
forms are now adorned with an enor
mous bull’s-eye over each of the
player’s numbers.
“We can’t worry about the target
on our backs,” said 2005 AMCC
Coach of the Year, Phil Pisano. “We
need to keep taking big steps this
year towards trying to improve. We
can’t allow last year’s success to be
the peak of our progress as a team.”
The Lions, who shot out of the
gate to an undefeated 5-0 record, are
showing no signs of this being the
problem and will not allow the fast
start to go to their heads. In fact,
with 5 returning seniors and 10 total
returning players, the team has much
of the same core as it did last season.
“We have very strong team chem
istry,” noted senior captain Lisa
Wagner. “The entire team has bond
ed from the beginning. With us it’s a
team thing all the way.”
After opening up the season with a
3-1 win at Thiel college, the Lions
focused their attention on hosting
the annual Behrend Invitational
Tournament.
“Anytime we’re at home it’s an
advantage,” commented senior cap
tain Karla Murray. “Our fans are
very loud and loyal, and they always
make us feel comfortable.”
Relaxed, and playing in their com
fort zone, the Lions had no trouble
picking apart the field of five visit
ing teams.
Behrend opened up the tourna
ment on Friday by winning a pair of
matches in merely three straight
games. The Lions tore through
D’Youville 30-14, 30-16 and 30-15
in their first match of the weekend,
and then proceeded in similar fash
ion to overpower Kenyon 30-17, 30-
20 and 30-21.
The team continued its dominance
well into Saturday, posting yet
another victory in only three games
as they disposed of Bethany (WV)
30-16, 30-20 and 32-30. The high
light of the tournament, however,
came late Saturday afternoon, when
the Lions won a decisive series
Women’s soccer kicks off
Some good things are happening at the Behrend
Fields this year. This coming weekend, September 15
and 16, the women of the Behrend soccer team will take
part in the Herb Lauffer Tournament here at home.
Last weekend, the women were a part of the Fredonia
State Tournament, where they finished (1-1). In their
first match against Mount Union, freshman Cassie
Berlin had two goals, while sopho
more Beth Manganaro added one of
her own. Head Coach Patrick
O’Driscoll added that the game was
not the team’s best performance.
In the championship game against
Fredonia State, Coach O’Driscoll
said, "The players fought hard even
though they lost.” Coach O’Driscoll
also added that the team had several
chances to get on the scoreboard, but
they had bad shots. The team fell 2-0
to Fredonia State.
The team had three of its members
named to the Fredonia State All
Tournament Team, Katie Ritchey,
Kayla Frost, and Berlin. Frost had
another honor come her way this week
when she was named the Goal Keeper
of the Week
Kara Struski, a senior captain, plays the midfield and
last year was named to the Second All-AMCC
(Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference) Team.
She said, “Our main goal is the same every year...win
the AMCC title and get an automatic bid to the NCAA
Tournament. We've been so close we could almost taste
it over the last couple years, but just couldn't get it.”
Coach O’Driscoll would also love to see his team win
the AMCC, but admits that it will be very hard. Also
against Fredonia State, capturing the
title of tournament champion.
“Fredonia is typically a very
strong team,” said coach Pisano. “So
for us to handle them in 3 games,
speaks volumes to the potential of
this team.”
The Lions were led by tournament
MVP Elaine Voltz who supplied 14
kills in the championship match.
Voltz, who averaged nearly 5 kills
per game, totaled 77 kills and 23
blocks throughout the tournament.
Her 14 kills against Fredonia State
placed her with 1,138 for her career,
the most in school history. Joining
Voltz on the All-Tournament team
was sophomore teammate Brittany
Hennessy, who supplied 65 digs over
the course of the weekend.
The Lions will look to add some
more hardware to their trophy case
this upcoming weekend when they
play in the Westminster Tournament.
“We really wanted some momen
tum entering the Westminster
Tournament,” commented coach
Pisano. “Since we have a week to
prepare for the tournament, we’ll
have a chance to really work on
things we thought we could have
done better.”
The only task left to do now is to
find larger uniforms for that growing
bull’s-eye.
By Lenny Smith
staff writer
“We are deter
mined, passion
ate and confident
that we can come
out and win the
AMCC this year."
•Kara Struaii
The Behrend Beacon I
Friday, September 15 , 2006
named captains of this year's team are juniors Hmilv
Rogan and Jess Carlson.
Struski said, “This year’s team is definitely younger
than it was last year, with the addition of nine freshmen,
but we seem to have the same dynamics as every year."
Coach O’Driscoll said, “[The team] is more flexible in
terms of tactics with some dangerous forwards, five
freshmen starting, and at least six or seven (freshmen)
seeing significant playing time."
“Basically our goal in everything we do is to be num
ber one, not number two
and that is the attitude we
many of whom participated in last year's NCAA
Tournament. The teams include Westminster College.
Calvin College, and Thomas Moore, as well as the
Behrend Lions.
Behrend will take on Westminster on Friday the 15th
at 3:00 p.m. and then on Saturday, the 16th. then the
team will face Thomas More at 4:00 p.m.
“We are all determined, passionate, and confident
that we can come out on top and win the AMC C' this
year,” Struski added.
take to every game and
every practice
Struski. This attitude may
help the team win this
weekend's Herb Laufi'er
Tournament at the Behrend
Fields.
The tournament is
named after the former
Penn State Behrend
Athletic Director because
of his influential work as
the Athletic Director, and
in his work bringing colle
giate soccer to the college.
The tournament will see
some very strong teams.