THE DAILY COLLEGIAN Men's soccer team looks to overcome regular season struggles By Andrew Robinson COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER The preseason is over and, from now on, the games count. While the Penn State men's soc cer team is rea to get its season going, there are MEN'S still a few things SOCCER that improvement "We've got a lot of work to do," Nittany Lions coach Bob Warming said Sunday. "We were nowhere near the better team [Saturday]." Despite some struggles against No. 20 Louisville in the team's final exhibition, the No. 16 Lions still emerged with a 2-1 win and a 2-0 preseason record. Saturday's game was played in Fort Wayne, Ind., and the win was one more step toward Warming's goal of fixing Penn State's road woes of the past four years. The Lions battled in both of their preseason games to get their desired result. Against Hartwick College on Aug. 21, the team had to rally from a one-goal deficit to win 3-1, then broke a 1-1 tie against the Cardinals to win. "We received a goal right before Weekend gives women's soccer team mixed results on set pieces By Alex Angert COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER Judging by Penn State's per- coach Erica Walsh was not formance on Sunday at Jeffrey pleased with her team's showing Field, apparently practice doesn't during its 2-1 loss to William & always make perfect. Mary on Sunday. Lexi Marton (4) prepares to kick the ball Sunday. The Nittany Lions lost to William & Mary, 2-1, at Jeffrey Field. cpw call 4: chatty charlies gabby garrys shmoozy suzys verbose vickys , persuasive pattis! we've g cp - t 4: part-time job halftime, and that's pretty much what we're working toward in terms of our goal scoring," senior co-captain Andres Casais said. "Our team showed a mental toughness coming out [in the sec ond half] and we scored in the first 10 minutes and held our lead." Through the preseason, warming has been happy with the production from his core players, as well as his reserves and new comers. Warren Gross, the starting goal keeper, sat out Saturday's match with a minor injury, but Warming said reserve keeper Brendan Birmingham turned in a strong performance in net. Freshman forward Jordan Tyler has been an impact player early, scoring a goal against Hartwick and adding two assists against Louisville. Offensively, striker Corey Hertzog has continued to be the go-to option for the Lions, with an assist against Hartwick and scor ing both goals against Louisville. Penn State opens its season on the road and has a mid-September trip to Colorado scheduled, some thing the team knows will make for difficult travel. Overcoming that adversity is something Warming and Casais After spending a large portion of practice this week working on set pieces, notably corner kicks, head ing I I SPORTS know will be a key to success this season. "Our first game's gonna be away and half our games are gonna be in other places, obvious ly away games are gonna be very important for us," Casais said. "If we want to be a national con tender, we have to win our away games." But the senior defender is also ready to get the season started and likes what he has seen so far in preseason. Because of the amount of time the team spent travelling on the bus this weekend, it is limited in how much training it can do before leaving for Columbus, Ohio on Thursday. But in his short time as head man of the Lions, Warming has come to respect how his players carry themselves on the road. "They enjoy traveling together, they're a great group to have on the road and they're gentlemen," Warming said. "I've gotten a lot of compliments from people about their behavior. They're really rep resenting Penn State really well, not only on the field but on the road as well." Corey Hertzog (11) beats two Hartwick defenders to the ball during To e-mail reporter: adrso79@psu.edu Saturday's match "Set pieces are so much about desire," she said. "We had some near misses and we have a lot to build on there. But so much of it is putting your body at harm's way and we haven't proven that we're willing to do that yet." By the end of the afternoon, the box score showed seven corner kicks none of which resulted in a goal and a disappointing loss to an unranked Tribe squad. However, Sunday's perform ance did not completely reflect the weekend as a whole. After going 0- for-11 on corner kicks in the open er against West Virginia on Aug. 20, the Nittany Lions went a com bined 1-for-15 in two games this weekend. And though the Lions only capi talized once, that one goal proved to be one of the highlights of their hard fought draw against one of their newest rivals, Virginia, on Friday. With the Lions yet to put a tally on the board, midfielder Christine Nairn lined up in the corner and booted a high, powerful kick that fell in front of forward Tani Costa. The redshirt freshman received the kick and passed it to freshman Hayley Brock, who scored for Penn State. WOMEN'S SOCCER "We've been working on that," Brock said. "Just staying com posed and getting a foot or any thing on [the ball]. That's exactly what happened." Over and over again during practice, Walsh and the rest of the coaching staff drilled the impor tance of set pieces into the play ers' heads as the team lined up in formation in front of the net to both defend and convert corners. "It's just a mentality" Walsh said. "It takes repetition. It's bor ing. A glance up and down the Penn State roster, and Walsh sees all the pieces in place to be lethal on cor ner kicks and set pieces. Now, it's just a matter of putting those pieces together outside of practice. icp r - 1 I 9 re at for yo u TUESDAY, AUG. 31, 2010 I Andrew Dunheimer/Collegian "Look at the size of Lexi [Marton] and Carly [Ninessl ," Walsh said earlier in the week "There's no reason we shouldn't be having some success on attack ing set pieces." While the players are there to be successful and the team contin ues to practice as often as possi ble, there is really no telling what can happen on a given set piece in a game. On Sunday against the Tribe, in the span of one minute, Penn State had two straight corner kicks. The first was a high lofting kick from Nairn, which met the head of forward Maya Hayes, but sailed wide of the goal. The second was a shot that had virtually no air under it and went into the side of the goal. "It's really hard to tell," assis tant coach Ann Cook said, "because until you are in . that pressure cooker environment of game time, you don't necessarily know what you've created." To e-mail reporter: adal47!psu.edu
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