10 MUM) kl. NON. 30, 2009 Penn State fencers successful at meet By Greg Garcia ?HE COLLEGIAN The Penn State men's and women's fencing teams both left Harvard University with winning records during _ Sund, br' ay's iout - against five other FENCING schools The men's team finished undefeated, in part by easily defeating New York Cniverity Sacred Heart ersity and Vassar College. Howe\ not every match was Outdated behind its Ey Margaret McAvoy ,tiPiTRR ,tate swimmers, who ,„ • \atatorium home, ! ti i ;);111din<2, has a certain NOMEN'S ,i,Lching up. They say it it's too small and 1 - riportant equip- ;, ; Natatorium was making it the second , ‘iil:2 facility in the Big higan State's uider but the facility has gone i,f wi„ renovations to to date. `„,• • ~ p•-• illsTe Ohio State's .• , million McCorkle state-of-the s‘Lf.:l.;,),i-ols, 10 racing lanes spa In 1998, the of Michigan installed filtration system in • %atatorium. The • has new i I r inch allows for is resulting in faster , 11 I I, it": 11; tin ations are being he conference to :,!11 and Penn MEEMEIMEI Alum ! - 11r. acv the Nittanv aver in aces it Pavlik that Holt • the next level. 11)! - - , 1 happens to be Ile zones and one ):irrier away. !t:\ in last spring. 11.1ict with the team Marmi ,min 2 the tat wy, to take his ;Una' opportum lhe AVP Beach the closest thing ttit , t S. about ,11,11', ' most prolific nave gone over heir careers. „iumni are spanning ing in highly corn , m countries such • , Turkey Belgium :,part from Happy world of new , :ich Pavlikl is all -1 ^ it) oil _ tne set before Michigan put together a pair prt):111:,1n2 Rose's timeout. ( - !4 - c. at left outside hitter, Rose instructed Glass to Hodge for a cross-court kill not a tough task for mc look good." Glass said of Hodge. "There's even if it's high and tight I don't worry about it. ; - r. s gonna go over the top of this block. and she's going to score.' Hodge scored 17 times on Saturday and also posted 11 digs a~ the L:Hi< won the match 25-21. 25-13 and 25-23. With the victoty. the Lions completed their second-consec uti c iiitheaten regular season and increased their NCAA record to 9t; wins in a row. They iiso became the first team in Big Ten history to go 20- v) in conference tor three consecutive seasons. it's hard to do because there are so many fine players in the conference and so many competitive universities and coaehin2 struts. '' Rose said. - On every team we play there's players on those teams that we recruited so we recognize just ho - . - talent , - d they are.'. R,l 1 the rest of the ability in the Big Ten. Glass I‘ !r.) talented it gets laughable. • t• Glass said. To play with those kinds of a,t make you laugh there's nothing else She r`r) . ! . :l t TO a play in the first set where she said hii; hit the ground before the defender could even Junk' i - titter Blair Brown said some of Hodge's swings in the last sct brottght a smile to her face as well. With the Lions needing a stark to get to the post-game festivities where !hey received their 13th Big Ten championship trophy after clinching the c , nference on the road last weekend Brown wild at 't the ball to Hodge was the perfect way to do so. it is senior night. and we wanted Megan to close out the Brown said. - It's just a great way for her career to me to2et Aq• in Rec Hall to finish it." that easy for the men's team. Coach Emmanuil Kaidanov said the bout against the Crimson was a tough battle. The Nittany Lions were able to over come Harvard in a very close 15-12 • -ajtt victory. Against Prince ton University, the Lions found them selves once again Kaidanov in a fight to the fin ish. By a 14-13 score, the men's team was able to defeat the Tigers facility peers State is slowly falling behind. - We can't hold platform diving events or even compete in them," senior Michelle Myers said. "We don't have the facilities to do it." McCoy Natatorium is without a platform diving board, and the pool itself is only six lanes wide, making it too small to hold cham pionship events. Myers, who grew up in State College, said new reno vation plans and additions to the current natatorium have been passed around for years. Expansion of the Natatorium is a priority for the university, Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley said, but he couldn't give a time frame as to when things would happen. Curley said the department doesn't put one need over another, and the latest addition to Penn State facilities will be a new soft ball complex, which is to be ready for play by Spring 2011. However, the $10.2 million stadium project was jump-started by William and Lee Beard's $500,000 contribution earlier this year. Curley estimated that additions to the natatorium would be some where around $35-$45 million. Those funds could come from a variety of places, and factors such as timing and the economy play into the equation, Curley said. Other factors are private dona tions and contributions, adminis- about helping each guy grow aca demically and as an individual," said Matt Proper, a 2006 graduate who had stints in Italy and Turkey before signing with his current team, Anorthosis Famagusta, in Cyprus. Proper says professional man agers have little, if any interest in their player's personal lives. Instead, they put great emphasis on the win-loss column. That's because the stakes are high— some European leagues offer con tracts in the range of $lO,OOO a month. - You're not playing 'For the Glory.' You're playing for your career," Proper said. 'And that's a tough thing to swallow for some people at the beginning." Holt, however, already knew what to expect. Throughout his collegiate career, he kept in touch with his former teammates who went on to play abroad and listened to their advice. "It's kind of like a trailblazing effect." Pavlik said. "The older guys come and tell the younger guys what they went through. They tell them how cool it is to To e-mail reporter: ajcs23B@psu.edu to bring their overall record to 5-0 for the day. Kaidanov was pleased with what he saw from the men's team. "Overall the performance was very solid," he said. Senior saber Daniel Bak and sophomore foil Miles Chamley- Watson led the men's team. Both fencers lost only one bout throughout the entire day in Boston. Last year. Bak and Chamley-Watson had a combined six losses. "My performance was OK: said Chamley-Watson, who won 14 The McCoy Natatorium, one of the Big Ten's oldest swimming facilities, is falling behind its peers tration support and athletic Offered what he said was a bet- ities, some athletes feel training department funds, Curley said ter opportunity at Ohio State, and practicing in the natatorium Former coach Bill Dorenkott, Dorenkott left Penn State in 2008. does have at least one advantage: now the head coach at Ohio State, He said it's not fair to compare It makes road meets seem accom said that in his time at Penn State McCoy to McCorkle. modating. he attempted to educate the uni- But the swimmers do. - We're always able to get really versity on the need for a new facil- "It's not up to date," senior excited," Myers said. "The atmos ity. Lindsey DeForrest said. "The one phere at away meets is so much He made suggestions toward a we have, we make do." nicer." new venue, but did not stay long Though McCoy is outdated in enough to see feedback. comparison to other Big Ten facil- cash a paycheck for playing volley- Yet Penn State players have yet ball, but also about the different to encounter major problems. responsibilities they have." Their biggest complaint is being That includes the responsibility"" 'far from friends and family. And to consistently play at a top level. that goes both ways: Angela Holt Luke Murray, who captained- the said it's hard to be away from her Lions in their 2008 NCAA son for so long. He might not Championship season. said a poor return home until May when his performance on the court could season is finished. quickly end a career. Murray is currently playing in Cyprus and said if his managers have any dis satisfaction with his play they can easily send him back on a plane to the States. That's just the nature of profes sional volleyball. Penn State assistant coach Colin McMillan who has six years experience playing in Portugal, Puerto Rico. France and Turkey said some international leagues are shady operators. "When Max Holt was starting to think about playing abroad. I mainly told him to really evaluate his options," McMillan said. "Make sure you are in a situation you want to be in." McMillan said some teams don't pay players if the team loses or don't take care of players if they get hurt. 'leers From Page 8 the Stovepipe championship game riding a wave of confi dence and an 11-game winning streak after heating Southern New Hampshire Saturday afternoon. After a goal at the end of the second period. Penn State w-as tied at two with Southern New Hampshire. The Icers scored three times in the third to pull away and secure the win. The leers found themselves in a similar position on Sunday. Penn State and UMass-Boston were tied at two after the first period Sunday, but it was the Beacons who scored the late-period goal to tie the game. And instead it was UMass-Boston (4-1-D that pulled away, scoring four times in 15 mi utes. The first came from junior forward Matt Atsoff 17 ,econds into the peri od. followed by a Jimmy Ennis s lorthanded goal just under five minutes later. Ten minutes and two goals after, the Beacons had a four-goal lead and Icers starting goaltender Teddy Hume was replaced by John Jay after he allowed six goals. "A little more talent." O'Brien said when comparing UNlass-Boston to Southern New Hampshire. When they had scoring chances. they capitalized on some of them that Southern New Hampshire might not have." Penn State did cut a little bit into the Beacon lead. O'Brien scored his second goal of the game at the end of the second period and Marek Polidor's third goal of the weekend got the Icers back within two with more than 15 minutes left to play But the lone goal Jay allowed put nlass-Boston back up by three with 11 minutes left and sent Penn State back to State College as the runner-up with a 1-1 record against NCAA competition the same record the Icers had in their NCAA tournament last season. With Delaware coming up next weekend, the Icers are already looking ahead and freshman forward Dominic Morrone was quick to point out that while the result was disappointing, it was not a conference game. don't think it was a lack of talent by us." O'Brien said. "I just think it was a lot of us getting out of our systems.- matches. "I would have liked to go undefeated, but it's a good start for the men's team." The women's team was not as fortunate as the men's, but it still came away with a 4-1 record. The Lions took care of Vassar, Sacred Heart and NYU in domi nating fashion, just like the men's team. After defeating Princeton in a very close match, their only loss on the day came to Harvard. Harvard was able to defeat the Lions 14-13 in another tough match. Of course, modern technology is a quick fix for any lingering case of homesickness. "Skype and Facebook are my savior, for sure," Murray said. Communicating with those back at home is easy; it's adjusting to a new culture that is problemat ic. Holt's transition from big man on campus to international player is still a work in progress. He's currently the only American on Marni Lanza Verona's roster. "Obviously the language barrier has been tough sometimes," he said. That isn't always a bad thing. Angela Holt remembers having a conversation with her son after Marni Lanza Verona lost a match. - He said. 'Mom, we were on a four-hour bus ride back and the To e-mail reporter: tecso26@psu.edu "With some fencers not able to make it due to medical reasons and individual tournaments, we looked pretty good," Kaidanov said. "Harvard was very solid and it was a close match throughout the entire bout." Junior foil captain Doris Willette was the only fencer on either team to go undefeated indi vidually. The women's team also had a pair of fencers who only lost one bout sophomore saber Monika Aksamit and senior epee Anastasia Ferdman. To e-mail reporter: mcm332@psu.edu coach is yelling at us. I have no idea what he was saying. I just sat there,' she said. Still, it's been a love affair between Holt and Verona, the city famous as the setting for Romeo and Juliet. `As far as the culture and way of life here, I am loving it," Holt said. "The food is amazing, and the peo ple are very friendly" On the court, he is picking up right where he left off. Just one month into his rookie season, Holt is getting significant playing time in the Italian Serie A Volleyball League, which Murray said is pos sibly the top league in the world. Even as Holt's professional career takes off, Pavlik thinks the former Penn State star will find time for his old teammates. "I'd imagine the current guys on the team look up to Holt and the others who play in internation al leagues," Pavlik said. "And the older guys get that. They see that they're the model for what kind of opportunities are available, and they see it's their responsibility to tell the younger guys what professional volleyball is all about." No. 1 From Page 8 making the tournament. Now that the field has been announced, the players are eager to start playing. - It's a long season, but we're ready," junior Blair Brown said. "We want to go into the tournament right now. That's what we're striving for." The Lions are looking for an unprecedented third-straight national championship. To reach that goal, the team feels it still needs to improve in some areas. The players and coaches have talked a lot about picking up the team energy and with the tourna ment less than a week away, doing so will becoming even more important. This is a situation the Lions have been in before, so some of the players know to handle the pres sures. Still, they know how difficult the long road ahead will be. - This is just the beginning of the next phase," senior setter Alisha Glass said. "So we're gonna work on things that we need to fine tune, but we're very excited to get started." Despite being the top seed in the tournament, the Lions will lose their home-court advantage if they advance past the second round. Penn State will be playing in the Gainesville, Fla., Bracket, and with the semifinal and championship games being played in Tampa, the Lions will have to do the majority of their playing in Florida if they hope to win another championship. To add to the travel issue, there is also the chance the Lions will face the No. 16 Florida Gators in their home gym if both teams advance to the regionals. The Gators have perhaps the easiest road of all the teams in the region as they would not have to leave the state if they advance to the championship. In all, there are four teams in the Lions' region that are ranked in the AVCA Coaches 14-25 Poll, including No. 9 California and No. 8 UCLA. To e-mail reporter: wmlsoos@psu.edu THE DAILY COLLEGIAN
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