10 The Daily Collegian My Opinion A roadtrip not soon forgotten I've been a student at Penn State for a little over a year and the most common Monday questions seem to be "What didja do over the week end?" When somebody recently asked me that question I told them "I went to Miami." "MlaaaahMl." Yes, Miami. As in Florida. Not Ohio. For the Lions-'Canes game in the bowl, baby. I said to hell with the studies. Give me the Orange Bowl, the Hurri canes, rays and a roadtrip. How can you pass that up? But before anybody can embark on a journey of this magnitude, you definitely have to be missing a few brain cells. You have to be a little deranged to spend 42 hours with three people in a pint sized cubicle where the only thing you can do is yell, scream and honk at truck drivers. Just to see a football game which you could easily watch on TV. Well, almost easily, considering that the Clarence Thomas hearings blacked out the whole third quar ter. But anyway, that's the art of road tripping. It's a job for pure psy chotics and sports fanatics. You have to be psychotic to paint yourselves blue and white and sit in the Miami section in the Orange Bowl where they sell beer to stu dents! The Orange Bowl crowd is known for lynching fans of the opposing team. And you have to be insane to nominate YOUR car, a puny Dodge Charger, for an arduous 2,700 mile drive, especially when one of your comrades lives in New York City and doesn't have a license. Call us idiots, call us stupid, call us Collegianites Peter Zellen, Nick Gill and myself. We survived each other. As one famous Iraqi would describe it, this was the mother of all roadtrips. But we weren't going to travel 1,350 miles EACH WAY to watch the Lions get their asses drowned in the Atlantic Ocean. We wanted to see the Nittany Lions at their best. Even though they lost 26-20, they played one of the best games of the season in one of the best environments for football in the country. The Orange Bowl is an epic sta dium. Where else can it seem like you're watching a football game in a for eign country? Where else does it cost $2O to park your car in someone's backyard, not knowing if it will be stripped and sold wholesale? Or where else can an airplane buzz the stadium and get away with it? The Orange Bowl fans lived up to their reputation they were unbelievable. We got seized by the Storm Front (their student support group) and recieved every dirty look and remark possibly known to man or to Penn State fans in Miami. When we got to our seats, a security guard warned us that the Miami fans when drunk will hurl heavy objects at opposing fans. We got pummeled with ice, paper air planes and insults especially after Vinny Testaverde was honored. It was wonderful. I yelled, "Five interception-Vin ny Jan. 2, 1987. Enough said." That went over real well with one fan who apparently remembered that particular game vividly. If looks could kill, he would have thrown me off the upper deck. After the game, Miami fans came up to us and actually said, "Good game." They showed good sports manship. I almost dropped dead. They weren't as bad as I thought, even if they did yell "Penn State clowns." But the Orange Bowl is as dif ferent from Beaver Stadium as Coach Joe Paterno is from Tony Sacca. Not to crack on Penn State's mammoth home, the legendary Lion coach or Sacca, but the Bowl's 75,000 fans easily could drown out Bea ver's 95,000. Then there was the sound system, blasting Queen's "We Will Rock You" and the Scorpions' "Rock You Like a Hurricane." Even though Penn State lost, it was one giant party for us in 85-degree heat. Peter Faggen is a sophomore majoring in journalism and a sportswriter for the Daily Collegian. Lions and Paterno set new goals for season By PETER ZELLEN Collegian Sports Writer At midseason, and with the Nit tany Lions being 5-2, Coach Joe Paterno and his players have new goals for the rest of this season. Before the season started, play ers had visions of a national championship and an undefeated season. However, recent events have put a damper on those dreams. "We are 5-2 and, you know, our goals have been set back a little bit, or should I say a lot," offensive tackle Todd Burger said. "We have the ability and we have the confidence that we can go out for the rest of those games and end up some where nice come January first." Paterno said that he and the team were very disappointed at the loss in Miami but cannot dwell on past performances if they want success for the rest of the season. "We just have to step away from the limelight and get back to work and start to zero in on one game at Tina Henry takes a breather during the Lady Lions' "Midnight Madness" practice early Tuesday morning at Rec Hall. This practice opens up Penn State's 1991-1992 basketball season. Farlow fulfilling her dreams with Lady Lions By STACY TOY Collegian Sports Writer Many athletes have the desire to play at the school of their dreams. But for some of those athletes, that goal can only be obtained through sacrifices and determination. Angie Farlow, a junior backrow special ist on the women's volleyball team, achieved her goal last year when she finally got the opportunity to play for Penn State. Farlow first met Coach Russ Rose the summer before her senior year in high school at a volleyball camp he was directing. She talked to him about recruiting processes and Freshman Cook for lady spikers By MATTHEW CORRADINO Collegian Sports Writer Much emphasis was placed on the No. 16 women's volleyball team's three sweeps last weekend over Michigan and Michigan State. But an individual performance stood out, that of redshirt fresh man Laura Cook. Cook stepped in to replace injured setter Salima Davidson. The Lady Lions (13-2, 4- 2 Big Ten) ran a more basic offense, but still had no trouble winning. Offensively, Cook shared setting duties with Jenny Schuller, but also proved to be a capable hitter. "I felt really good about setting Laura," Schuller said. "I know she's going to get a kill. It's nice to see her come off the bench and be confident in her play." In addition to her 43 assists for the weekend, Cook added 11 kills, including six against Michigan which gave her a .500 hitting percentage for the match. "I thought Laura Cook did some nice things offensively," Coach Russ Rose said. "I think it showed that we can do some other things when Salima gets back." For Davidson, sitting on the bench was a necessary evil, but the team's success took some of the pain away. "(Sitting) is the hardest thing in the world," she said. "It was hard at first. The team really pulled Sports a time," Paterno said. "There's one game coming up and that is Rutg ers." Paterno said that it was impor tant now to work on team play and to try to overcome the mental breakdowns that have plagued the team all season. ■ Burger belives that the rest of the season will be important to his offensive line. While not up for a national championship, he feels that the remaining five games will help the troubled spot for Penn State come together. "People are getting more com fortable working as a unit and by the end of the season we will pull it together," Burger said. ■ Right now, thousands of Nitta ny Lion fans are sitting at home wondering just what were those behind-the-back shovel passes to tight end Troy Drayton by quarterback Tony Sacca. Believe it or not, those are Patemo endorsed plays that have been used in practice. Paterno likes the play the schools she was interested in and decided Penn State was where she wanted to play. In high school, Farlow was used mainly as an outside hitter, but at 5-foot-6, she was too small to play that offensive position at a school like Penn State. She liked the fact that Rose used small backrow specialists. "I wanted to come somewhere where my team would be competitive and good," she said. "Also, Coach Rose has backrow players and a lot of good teams don't have them. If they do, they have really tall backrow players, like s'B" or 5'9"." Farlow thought Penn State's program was tough and liked the competive Penn State together. It was fun watching them after a while." Rose cited intensity as one of the team's weaknesses last weekend. "I think some people got their eyes looking at the crowd," he said. "You play the game to excite the crowd, you don't play a match to stare at the crowd." ■ Friday night against Michi gan, 1,060 people were in atten dance. Saturday against Michigan State, that number jumped to 1,250. Penn State averages 1,577 spectators a game, which puts the team third in Big Ten rankings. "I think Rec Hall is a great place to play volleyball," Schuller said. "Maybe it's not great for the basketball team in that it's not big enough. But for volleyball, if we could fill up the bleachers, it would be really loud." If intensity is indeed a problem at home, fans must wonder how the team gets pumped for matches on the road, where the opposing team is not the only opponent. This weekend, when the team travels to lowa (Friday) and Minnesota (Saturday), the crowd should not be a problem. lowa only averages 419 fans for Big Ten matches, while Minnesota will be competing with the hometown Twins, who will be hosting the first game of the World Series. Penn State is tied with Minne- because it is a simple one to exe cute and he said that the worst outcome on a play like that is an incompleted pass. The reason Sacca throws that pass behind his back is because he feels more comfortable doing it that way. Paterno joked about it during his news conference yesterday. "I was horsing around with him one day and I was playing the end and we were working on the ball," he said. "He threw it behind his back to me and I said 'You better not do that in a game,' and he laughed at me." Notes:While nothing major has developed, nagging injuries still plague the Lions. Nose tackle Jim Deter will most likely sit out the Rutgers game because of his continued knee problems. Hero Chris Cisar is still out while recovering from shoulder surgery and cornerback Bobby Samuels is still having knee troubles and also will not play. "(Samuels) just couldn't get back in the groove," Paterno said. sets stage victory sota (7-9) for third in the Big Ten. Both sport 4-2 records. lowa (5-13) has a 1-5 record. lowa will participate in four matches this week, while Minne sota is involved in three. Minne sota and lowa will meet tonight in lowa City. No. 14 Ohio State and No. 15 Illinois are still sitting atop the conference; both with 6-0 records. The two teams will square off Friday night. ■ Statistically, Penn State moved up to second in hitting efficiency (230), behind Michigan (.234), which hit only .036 against the Lady Lions. The team is led by Leanne Kling (.317, third in the Big Ten) and Schuller (.283) In the conference, the team is first in blocks per game (3.59), second in digs per game (17.46) and third in kills per game (13.47). Individually, Kling ranks first in blocks per game. Kim Kumfer and Schuller are second and fourth, respectively, in blocks per game. Despite her injury, Davidson still leads the Big Ten in assists per game. ■ In its October issue, Volley ball Monthly magazine picked its first-ever Best of the Best rank ings. Penn State finished ninth. The Lady Lions made the list on the strength that the team has been to every NCAA tournament. Terry Smith hauls in a touchdown pass that was later negated by a penalty in the first quarter of the Lions' loss to Miami. Penn State is concentrating on its mental mistakes as it gears up for the rest of the season beginning with this weekend's game with Rutgers. Hoop Lady Lions open '9l-'92 season with 'Midnight Madness' practice By PETER ZELLEN Collegian Sports Writer According to the NCAA, basket ball teams could not start official practice until Tuesday, October 15. But while adhering to the rule, Coach Rene Portland decided not to waste any time with her Lady Lions. At the stroke of midnight on Tuesday, Portland and her squad jogged onto the Rec Hall floor and took their first layup shots of the 1991-92 basketball season. This fourth annual "Midnight Madness" practice drew about 50 fans to cheer on Penn State. Some of those present were varsity athletes like wideout 0. J. McDuffie from the football team. "It feels good to get out there," center Kathy Phillips said. "We've been waiting a long time for this." team she sometimes got to see play if it was near her hometown of Riverdale, Md. But Penn State did not have a schol arship to offer her. She had a tough deci sion to make. "I liked Coach Rose's coaching tech niques and the volleyball program at Penn State," she said, "but I didn't decide until the last minute about where I wanted to go." "I told her what she needed to do," Rose said. "As long as she went to the Univer sity of Maryland then transferred up here after her freshmen year." Farlow did not play volleyball for Maryland because she would have had to sit a year at (From right to left)Jenny Schuller, Jenny Myszewski and Sue Boner stuff Michigan at Rec Hall this past weekend. The three worked well in their Big Ten matches with freshman Laura Cook, who is filling in for the injured Salima Davidson. Wednesday, Oct. 16, 1991 it up! Portland was equally as enthused about the opening of practice. "I was happy to see them out there. We are certainly anxious to get the Season started," she said. The Lady Lions hope to continue their success of last season when they finished the year at 29-2. Unfortu nately, that second loss came in the second round of the NCAA tour nament to James Madison Univer sity, 73-71. In fact, the JMU placard had remained on the Rec Hall scoreboard for the entire off-season, possibly a painful reminder of what could have been. But that placard came down last night, a sign of the season to come. "I think there are a lot of posi tive things that come out of everything. Even a kick in the tail Please see HOOPS, Page 12. Penn State because of the NCAA transfer rule. Rose said he did not think the year away from volleyball affected her style of play too much but he did have some initial doubts because she wasn't playing as well as she needed to. "I thought she had lost a significant amount of weight and strength and that affected the way she played," he said. This past summer Farlow spent a lot of time at camps and has made tremendous improvements in her game, Rose said. "She has played really well in some big matches and is showing a lot of courage out Please see FARLOW, Page 12. Collegian Photo/Chris Gaydosh Photo/Michael
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