No Bus fue
The Steelers will have tt
face the 7-4 Jets without
Jerome Bettis, Page 15
E DAILY COLLEGIAN
Christie Welsh winds up to score her
Big Ten record-tying 58th career goal.
Rose not
holding
back on
his team
PSU volleyball coach
realizes the need for
improvement after
NCAA tourney loss.
By Dustin Dopirak
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER djd2l6@psu.edu
You can call Penn State women's
volleyball coach Russ Rose harsh,
but'if nothing else you have to call
him honest.
Rose goes to a number of lengths
to make sure his players know where
they stand. None of the sometimes
harsh criticisms he utters about his
team in media interviews are things
he wouldn't say in front of all of his
players. He holds four meetings a
year with each player in which he
goes over her strengths and weak
nesses, tells her where she stands in
the lineup and discusses other perti
nent matters.
And he doesn't hold much back
"I don't think I've ever lied to my
players," Rose said. "I've identified
some of the problems some players
have brought to this team and I've
issued challenges that those prob
lems be fixed. That's what I do as a
coach. Maybe if I pretended that we
didn't have some of the problems we
had this season, and that the players
weren't making the mistakes the
group could've been affected differ
ently, but I'm not wired that way"
After the struggles his team has
had this season with chemistry, and
their unsatisfactory performance
against UCLA in the second round of
the NCAA tournament that led to
their earliest exit in 12 seasons, Rose
had a lot to talk about in his end-of
the-year meetings this week. It's like
ly that a lot of that wasn't pleasant.
However, it is not his brutally honest
words, but the response he got from
his players that tells the story of the
Nittany Lions' season.
In two separate interviews, Rose
asked players for their assessment of
the team. According to him, both
responded in the same way.
"I wouldn't exactly call this a
team."
See VOLLEYBALL, Page 20
Big Ten well-represented in women's volleyball Sweet 16
By Dustin Dopirak
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER I djd2l6@psu.edu
By accepting all six of its qualifying
teams, the NCAA Women's Volleyball
tournament committee put a lot of pres
sure on the Big Ten, and once again the
conference didn't disappoint.
Fbr the third straight season, the Big
Ten went undefeated in the first round of
the NCAA tournament. They were the
only conference with as many teams to
do so, as both the Big 12, who qualified
eight teams, and the Pac-10, who quali
fied six, each saw teams eliminated in
the first round.
The conference will be well represent
ed in the regional brackets with Wiscon
sin and Ohio State each advancing to the
Sweet 16.
"Pm•really happy with the way the Big
Ten performed this weekend," Wiscon
sin coach Pete Waite said. "It once again
validates the strength of this confer
ence 7
Mite's Badgers represent the best
O.N''ira
I I
t t
It
S
Welsh named top
The junior was awarded
the Hermann Trophy as
the NCAA's top women's
soccer player.
By Jason Bartolone
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER I jfbl66@psu.edu
Christie Welsh has been an outstand
ing soccer player throughout her colle
giate career. Yesterday, she took her
place among the elite of the sport.
Welsh, a junior forward on the Penn
State women's soccer team, was award
ed the Hermann Trophy in a ceremony
at The Bryce Jordan Center. The award
honors the nation's best soccer player.
Nebraska football coach Frank Sokh stands in front of his players. The Nebraska weightlifting method is legendary across
the nation, and it uses an Olympic-style program that emphasizes power over mere strength. .
Penn State spurns Olympic weightlifting method
Editors' Note: This is the third
story in a six-part series about
the Penn State weight program
Stories trickle back from the Mid
west. Tales of quarterbacks that
clean 300 pounds. Tales of offensive
linemen that can bench press 500
pounds without breaking a sweat.
Stories that tell of a better way.
For the most part, these stories
have their genesis at Lincoln, Neb., a
city whose population swells to
become the largest in the state when
the Cornhuskers play football on Sat
urdays. It is where the first college
football weight room was installed in
1967, where the original dumbbells
now sit behind velvet ropes. Inside
the West Stadium Strength Complex
hope to get the conference its second
national championship (Penn State,
1999). After defeating Wisconsin/Milwau
kee and Michigan State in their first two
matches, Wisconsin draws No. 11 seed
Texas A&M in the regional semifinals
Friday in Palo Alto, Calif. Should the
Badgers advance past the Aggies, they
will be looking at the winner of the
match between regional host Stanford,
the No. 3 seed in the tournament and
No. 14 seed Utah.
The Badgers are feeling a bit of a
sense of urgency this season. They will
be losing two of the most productive
players in the history of the program in
setter Lizzy Fitzgerald and middle block
er Sherisa Livingston, the Badger's all
time kills leader.
"I think our players always play with a
sense of urgency," Waite said. "But we're
losing some great players, and I think
part of what fuels them this season is the
opportunity to play together longer."
The Buckeyes draw a daunting
regional semifinal opponent in Southern
Explosive alternative
By Jeff Frantz
and Chris Korman
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITERS
jbfl42@psu.edu, ckorman@psu.edu
The Big Ten's Player of the Year three
seasons in a row, Welsh notched 25 goals
and 18 assists this season in leading the
Nittany Lions to a 24-4-1 record, a Big
Ten regular season crown and an
appearance in the quarterfinal round of
the NCAA Tournament. The junior cred
ited her fellow Lions as the main reason
for her recognition.
"I'd like to thank my team first of all,
because without them I would definitely
not be able to receive this award," Welsh
said.
Welsh has been an offensive dynamo
in her three years with the Lions, and is
the owner of all Penn State and Big Ten
career offensive records. But Lions'
head coach Paula Wilkins said that
beyond the numbers, Welsh brings
much prestige and recognition to. Penn
State soccer.
strength and conditioning coach
Boyd Eply runs a thriving Olympic
style training program that has pro
duced some of the largest physical
specimens to strap on pads.
"We're going to take an athlete,
and we're going to make him bigger,
faster and stronger and by doing so,
improve his performance," says Eply,
the Nebraska strength coach. "Power
is the component we're after. We
want guys with natural explosive
ness, and then we make them
stronger."
Power, when most strength coach
es use the word, refers to the ability
not only to lift heavy objects
(strength) but to do it at high velocity
(explosiveness).
Which is why schools such as
Nebraska train its players using
Olympic-style methods. Clearly, foot
ball is a game of explosiveness. The
very nature of the contest character
izes it that way: game play is based
on short spurts of activity, during
California. The Trojans are seeded No. 4
in the nation after finishing the season
24-3. They blew past Duke and Liberty in
the first and second rounds, sweeping
both teams, and winning five of their six
games by double digits. The Buckeyes
also dominated both of their first round
opponents.
Minnesota was close to joining Ohio
State and Wisconsin in the round of 16.
They lost a deuce game to Northern
lowa in game five 17-15. Golden Gopher
coach Mike Hebert expects his young
team to take a lot from Their NCAA tour
nament.
"I think we were playing the best vol
leyball we played all year at the end of
the season," Hebert said. "I'm really
impressed by the way we played down
the stretch. We just never had an easy
game, and we played all of those games
on par with out opponents. I'm really
excited about this team next season.
Saying Goodbye
A number of Big Ten teams will be los
ing their cornerstones this off-season.
player in country
"The stuff she brings on the field is in
the record books," Wilkins said. "But I
think she brings a lot of acknowledge
ment to our program, so that other peo
ple get noticed."
Still, Welsh is the most decorated play
er in women's soccer history at Penn
State. The Massapequa Park, N.Y. native
was a candidate for the Hermann 'Tro
phy last year, and with a season remain
ing in her collegiate career she figures
to again contend for the prestigious
award in 2002.
"I don't think she'll realize until she's
older the significance of this award,"
Wilkins said. "A lot of her work has paid
off."
Robert R. Hermann, the former
Chairman of the North American Soccer
League for whom the trophy is named,
was on-hand at yesterday's ceremony
which a player is exerting all the
force he can. Then he gets a 30-sec
ond break before he does it again, or
he goes to the sideline for a few min
utes rest.
"You've got to take into account
what a sport is comprised of," says
Derek Shore, a strength trainer in
the Philadelphia Phi'lies system, who
works in Canada during the off-sea
son. "Football is a power-based sport.
It requires acceleration and strength.
You've got to gear up to be explosive
for short spurts."
Force equals acceleration times
mass. This concept is central to why
Olympic-style trainers employ the
methods they do. They want players
to be explosive in the weight room so
that it carries over onto the field.
Sport specificity is a relatively new,
but simple, concept that has taken
over the strength-training communi
ty. Bluntly stated, mainstream.train
ers believe a workout regiment
See WEIGHTLIFTING, Page 20.
The Badgers losses of Livingston and
Fitzgerald will clearly be costly, but Min
nesota, Penn State, Michigan State, Ohio
State, lowa and Illinois will have big
shoes to fill next season as well.
In All-Big Ten players Lindsey Berg
and Stephanie Hagen, the Golden
Gophers lose the only two experienced
players they had this season, and the
other four teams will be losing a lot of
offense in outside hitters Katie Schu
macher, Erin Hartley, Anne Botica, Sara
Meyermann and Shadia Haddad respec
tively. Even so the strong young teams in
the conference, such as Ohio State,
Michigan, the Golden Gophers, Michi
gan State and Illinois should make some
national noise, and perennial powers
Penn State and Wisconsin should still
have the talent to compete with the
country's best.
"This league is losing a lot of genuine
superstars," Hebert said. "But I think
with the good young teams in the league
the pendulum is going to be swinging
upward again for the Big Ten.
INSIDE
Scoreboard . .. 14
NFL 15
College Football 16
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 5, 2001 13
and said that Welsh won quite easily in
the voting. But Welsh said that she was
surprised on Monday when she heard
that she was this year's recipient.
"The people that it came down to,
they're really great players," Welsh said.
"People could argue that anyone could
have won this award. I'm very happy
that I was chosen."
While she was pleased with her recog
nition, Welsh said that it does not take
away the sting of the Lions' exit from the
NCAA tournament at the hands of North
Carolina last weekend.
And although she is considered*by
many to be a strong favorite for next
year's Hermann Trophy, Welsh said that
she has different hopes for her senior
season.
"I'll take a national championship
first."
Lions look
to start
new streak
By Chris Adamski
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER I cxal9B@psu.edu
When the Penn State men's bas
ketball team had a 54-game non-con
ference home winning streak
snapped in the opening game of the
season against Yale, the team set out
to start a new streak
After all, all good things must
come to
And the Ifiga's Basketball
previous Lehigh at Penn St.
streak had 7:30 tonight
encom- Bryce Jordan Center
passed
more than
nine years, two head coaches and
two home courts since the last non
conference home loss, a 67-65 loss to
Pittsburgh in the first round of the
1992 NIT
So the Nittany Lions went out and
won their next game, a 75-66 triumph
over Lafayette Nov. 21.
But that new streak didn't last
quite as lung as the previous one.
Penn State lost its next time out at
The Bryce Jordan Center, Nov. 28 to
Clemson (79-66).
Tonight, the Lions (1-4) look to
start yet another home winning
streak as they take on the Lehigh
Mountain Hawks (0-6) at 7:30 at the
Jordan Center.
Penn State is coming off a loss at
Temple Saturday, a game in which
the Owls took control from the open
ing tip. Temple led 40-22 at halftime
and extended that lead to as much as
27 before the Lions made a late
comeback on the heels of Sharif
Chambliss' three-point shooting.
Despite the 75-63 loss, the Lions
had posted a solid rebounding effort,
losing the battle of the boards only
32-30 against a team much bigger on
the inside.
It was quite an improvement over
Penn State's previous outing, when
in the Clemson game the Tigers out
rebounded the Lions 46-22.
Although Penn State has grabbed
more rebounds than its opponent
only once all season (39-35 in the win
over Lafayette), the Lions should
have an advantage in tonight's game.
The Mountain Hawks' tallest
starter is 6-foot-7 Scott Taylor. The
senior forward is averaging 5.7
boards per game, second on the
team in rebounding to 6-5 senior
Bobby Mbom (6.8).
Taylor is the only Lehigh player
taller than 6-5 to see significant play
ing time thus far this season.
See BASKETBALL Page 20.
Mlshka Levy and Nadia Edwards block
against Ohio State, a Sweet 16 team.