Women's basketball A recap of the National Championship, Page 12, 13 THE DAILY COLLEGIAN Colin Gillette/Collegian Zeljko KoUesar falls after spiking the ball. Lions, Juniata to square off in last game of season By Adam Gomey COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER Fresh off a four-match home stand that ended a month-long stint on the road, the Penn State men's volleyball team returns to the road to complete its regular season at & tonight at Juniata. The Nittany Lions (12-13, 9-0 EIVA) are on a four-match winning streak, with all four victories coming against conference opponents, and all four of those matches being played in Happy Valley. However, after becoming comfortable with its home floor again, Penn State must return to the road. In the teams' first meeting in early Feb ruary, the Lions defeated Juniata in four games after the Eagles stole game one in Rec Hall. Penn State men's volleyball coach Mark Pavlik said tonight's match will be tougher and more competitive than the first match because Juniata (10-12, 5-8) will_be playing at home in front of a rowdy crowd. Pavlik said the "crowd factor" will only make the match that more difficult. "That place is always tough to play in," Pavlik said. "Going downio that place is going to be loud and obnoxious." Not only will Juniata be fired up to knock off first-place Penn State, but the Eagles might see the return of middle hit ter Luke Manion, who has been sidelined by injury. Although Juniata will be rocking tonight in anticipation of a stellar matchup between Eastern Intercollegiate Volley ball Association opponents, Penn State senior co-captain Adam Whitescarver is confident the Lions will prevail. Whitescarver said following the Southampton match this past weekend, the:team is beginning to come together for a stretch run for the conference cham pioriship. "We played solid all the way through," Whitescarver paid. "We pretty much set the pace." Although the No. 14 Lions are confident goittg into the match tonight, Juniata is coming with a boisterous crowd with revenge and upset on its mind. P4vlik said this past weekend, when the Liogis faced New Jersey Tech and Southampton, that it was a good tune-up fore Juniata match and this upcoming wend when Penn State travels to Southampton and Concordia. Tie sixth-year coach also said he hasn't given much thought to the odd Tuesday playing day, something the Lions aren't used to. Pavlik is just worried about his team and ',the Juniata crowd. "We're going to see the football team and•the basketball team screaming in a smajl gym," he said. "We just have to play our name and not worry about that." National champion Brandon Stefaniak performs on the pommel horse I lie u hid Penn State baseball prepares for Cornell Big Red About four days after the Penn State base ball team returned home from its 12-game winning streak in Virginia. Florida and South Carolina, Nittany Lions coach Joe Hindelang sat in his office and spelled out his idea for a successful Big Ten season. He outlined his prospective starters (which, for the most part, have remained constant), his desire to find a consistent right fielder who could cover that extra ground in pursuit of lined shots to the gap. even his concern about a third and fourth starter behind Pete Yodis and Dan Goebeler. He talked about how his team wasn't going to get the same offensive production it saw Michigan State beats Florida, 89-76 Michael Como, Associated Press ichigan State's Mateen Cleaves looks down court in the the NCAA Championship against Florida at the RCA Dome. Michigan State fans pack East Lansing bars to see game EAST LANSING, Mich. The big chal lenge around Michigan State last night was finding a good seat. At the Breslin Center, the line of people waiting to get inside to watch Michigan State play Florida in the NCAA championship in Indianapolis wrapped all the way around the parking lot an hour before tipoff. The game was shown on big screen television. "I'm a senior and I just want to be festive," said Stacie Patten, a senior who tailgated By Geoff Dodd COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER By Amy Franklin ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER against Norfolk State, Long Island and Columbia, to name a few. Then he beamed. "Defensively, we're fielding a .970 clip," Hindelang said. "That's outstanding." Meanwhile, Cornell coach Tom Ford sat in his office, too. From his lair in Cornell's Tea gle Hall, he would also outline his plans for a successful season. More offense, strong pitching, aggressive base running obvi ous, yet key ingredients for inflating the "W" column. But no one, especially Ford, beamed there. And he's probably smiling even less today, knowing his Big Red ball club will face the Lions this afternoon in a doubleheader, 1 p.m. at Beaver Field. For Ford, there was no .970-fielding clip to with a friend for about two hours before get ting in line. just love Michigan State. - People also lined up at bars and restau rants to get good seats. More than six hours before the start of the game, students were playing cards at a table in BW-3 Bar and Grill to ensure they'd have a seat. "We watch every basketball game here, so who had a Spartan "S" and "Go State painted of course we have to come here and watch on his bald head. the final game," said Deanna Babcock, a Michigan State senior studying packaging engineering. At Tripper's Sports Bar and Grille, pool Stefaniak works his way to second national title By Chris Bauman COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER At the mixed pairs exhibition at the beginning of the season, each member of the Penn State men's gymnastics team filled out a question naire asking him such things as nickname, hometown and life's ambition. This information was then read to the crowd when each ivmnast was announced. For senior Brandon Stefaniak, the life's ambi tion seemed more• humorous than serious. It simply stated, "To achieve immortality." Last weekend, Stefaniak might have done that, though not in the way he planned. Stefani ak ended his career with a weekend he will not soon forget, and one that will go down in the his tory books, with Stefaniak listed as "champion." Thursday, he posted a 9.925 on the pommel horse to help the Nittany Lions advance to the team finals. Friday, he was the last gymnast in the meet for the Lions, and his 4,9stLcjinebef4, tho talk about. There was a 12-game streak, but it wasn't the kind worth remembering. The Big Red, barely one third of the way through its season, had seen its campaign stomped out like a smoldering cigarette. It's not like it had to be this way. Cornell won its second game, 8-6, against Bucknell during a March 4 doubleheader. Never mind it had committed as many errors (five) as hits in the first game that day, an 11-2 drub bing at the hands of the Bison. "Obviously, there are tough plays that maybe are ruled errors," Ford said, "but we've got to be more solid and not give teams so many outs." Penn State (20-8, 5-3 Big Ten), on the other hand, put up 15 runs in one inning against the Bison last week, courtesy of Big Ten tables were turned into dining tables to accommodate the crowd. The restaurant, which handed out pompoms to the first 500 to arrive, also had an extra 30 workers on duty. "ICs not going to be close. They'll take the lead early and keep it." said Robert Darnell, 28, a Department of Corrections employee Darnell also was wearing his lucky No. 12 Michigan State shirt which he said has not been washed in a month. At Reno's Sport Bar and Grill, it was "He was so committed, he needed very little instruction." Randy Jepson Penn State men's gymnastics coach national champie"ship for Penn State. Saturday, he successfully defended his individual pommel horse title, becoming just the eighth Penn State gymnast to win multiple NCAA titles. "I had the ultimate weekend," he said. "It was like a storybook ending." Stefaniak has enjoyed an excellent career in a blue and white uniform despite not coming to Penn State as a scholarship athlete. As a fresh man, Stefaniak did earn a roster spot as a walk on. Penn State men's gymnastics coach Randy Jepson said he knew Stefaniak before he came to Penn State and knew he would make a good Wim.!l3st Player of the Week Chris Wright's grand slam and three-run double. "It seems once we get something going in one inning, it just keeps going," Lions senior second baseman Eric Spadt said. "It just takes one spark to get us going." For Cornell (2-13, 1-3 Ivy League), that spark has been bobbled balls and mistimed throws. Thirty-one errors in 15 games, compared to 18 for the opposition. It's seen five errors not once, but twice. It's posted four bum blings twice. And in its last game in the Bucknell series, it posted more errors (three) than hits (two). It's Bill Buckner-esque baseball at its best. But unfortunately for Ford and his squad, it's Cornell baseball at its worst. Mateen Cleaves comes back from injury to lead INDIANAPOLIS Mateen. Michigan State, with Magic Johnson cheering in the stands, won its second national championship as Mateen Cleaves led the Spartans to an 89-76 victory over Florida last night. It was 21 years ago that the championship game between Michigan State and Indiana State Magic vs. Bird changed the landscape of college basketball. This one may not have the magnitude, but it had the drama thanks to Cleaves, the Spartans' limping leader. After helping the Spartans build a 43-32 halftime lead by scor ing 13 points, including going 3-for-3 from 3-point range, and negating Florida's vaunted full-court pressure with his ballhan dfing and passing, Cleaves rolled his right ankle early in the second half and had to go to the locker room. When he left with 16:18 to play the Spartans led 50-44. His teammates got the lead to 58-50 by the time he returned 4:29 later. But the senior guard who missed the first 13 games of the season while recovering from a stress fracture in his right foot. was again the team's emotional leader. His long pass to Morris Peterson for a layup made it 60-50. He was leveled while setting a screen a few minutes later but it was enough to spring A.J. Granger for a 3-pointer that started a 16-6 run that made it 84-66 and put the game away. Cleaves certainly didn't do it by himself. Peterson finished with 21 points on 7-for-14 shooting and Granger had 19 and was 7-for-11 from the field. Cleaves was 7-for-11 from the field all the shots coming before he was injured and had 18 points and four assists. The Spartans (32-7), the only top-seeded team to reach the Final Four, finished 33-for-59 from the field (56 per cent), the best against Florida's frantic pace by far in the tour nament. The previous best was 43 percent by top-ranked Duke in the regional semifinals. Michigan State never seemed fazed by the pressure, beating it early with long passes. The Spartans were their usual effi cient selves when they did run their halfcourt game, getting good looks and crashing the boards when they missed. The Michigan State bench was considered a key to any chance the Spartans had. Florida's reserves had outscored it 175-45 in the tournament, but Jason Richardson had nine points as the Spartans' backups came up big. Udonis Haslem had a season-high 27 points for the fifth-seed ed Gators (29-9), while Brent Wright added 13. The 1979 final is still the highest-rated telecast of an NCAA basketball game the one that hooked the nation on the NCAA tournament. Michigan State, which beat Wisconsin 53-41 in an ugly all-Big Ten national semifinal, won all six games on its title run by at least 11 points. The Spartans closed the season with 11 straight wins and are the first Big Ten team to win it all since Michigan in 1989. Florida, looking to become the fourth straight Southeastern Conference team to win the national championship in an even numbered year, was making its first appearance in a champi onship game. standing room only. The crowd erupted in cheers when the televisions went to the Breslin Center. People in East Lansing were decked out for last night's game, wearing Michigan State shirts and carrying pompoms. Final Four T-shirts were selling for a dis counted $l2 Monday at a roadside stand just outside the Michigan State campus. But sales were slow, said Uriah Musial, vice president of clothing company Fanatic U. "I think everyone is anticipating a win. so then they can buy championship T-shirts," Musial said. "I knew he was very faithful and dedicated," he said. "He was so committed, he needed very little instruction." His sophomore year, Stefaniak became an All- American for the first time by finishing sixth on pommel horse at the NCAA Championships, which were held at Penn State. Last season he was able to win the national title on the pommel horse. And, of course, this season he also earned the individual pommel horse crown, but added a team championship as well. Jepson said although he has coached more talented gymnasts, Stefaniak was special because he could maximize the talent he did have. Stefaniak said he remembered two meets where he felt intense pressure. "The team comp(etition) this year, there was definitely a lot of pressure," he said. "Alsb, we Scoreboard .... 11 Basketball . 12, 13 Lacrosse 14 Track 15 TUESDAY, April 4, 2000 10 Spartans By Jim O'Connell ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER This time there was no Magic, just
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