THE DAILY COLLEGIAN
Cross country teams post mixed results at Invitational
By Zack Feldman
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
Though rankings suggested it,
Saturday's race proved Penn
State's cross country teams will
be underdogs
again this season.
The No. 24 CROSS
Penn State COUNTRY
women's team
turned ' third-
.ied in a tit,
place finish, while the men placed
fourth at the Harry Groves Spiked
Shoe Invitational at the Penn
State Golf Courses Saturday
morning.
After finishing 11th nationally
last season and winning the Big
Ten championship, the team fin
ished behind only No. 11
Georgetown and No. 7 Princeton,
and both runners and coaches
expected a finish on par with what
the teams ended up with over the
weekend.
"We're pleased with the third
place finish. I think we competed
very well against [Princeton and
Georgetown]," coach Beth Alford-
Sullivan said. "When the rubber
hit the road a little bit on this
course the last half is very diffi
cult I didn't think our women
ran as tough as they can. But it's
September, and you don't want
them to run as tough as they can
Field hockey team pleased to be back in the win column
By: Joe Mclntyre
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
The last time the Penn State
field hockey team got a win was
back in late August.
Back then, the
sun was s g,
the bleachers FIELD
were hot and the HOCKEY
ed a treat for fans
watching the game at AstroTurf
Field. But a lot can change in a lit
tle over two weeks.
Tbday on a cloudy, chilly and
damp mid-September day, the
Nittany Lions did something they
failed to accomplish against the
No. 3 and No. 5 teams in the nation
—get a win.
The No. 16 Lions defeated Lock
Men's and women's golf seasons begin with meets
By Matt Clancy
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
Penn State men's golf coach he's highly competitive"
Greg Nye knew when the season Miller, who was making his col
began that he had a relatively legiate debut, shot a 217 to finish
inexperienced as the Nittany Lions' top golfer.
team that would
have to grow as GOLF ment for his first tournament as a
the season went
on. McDonagh said.
However, it was the least experi- Miller said that he thought he
enced member of his squad, true played well, and was not worried
freshman Michael Miller, who about his first college experience.
played the best this weekend at "I was more excited than nerv
the Wolf Run Intercollegiate in ous," Miller said of his debut.
Zionsville, Ind. However, Penn State's upper-
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In similar fashion to last week's
Dolan Duals, both the men's and
women's teams ran in a pack for
the first part of the race.
Junior Kara Millhouse came
out on top for Penn State, placing
seventh overall with a time of 21
minutes, 16.6 seconds on the 6,000-
meter course, averaging a 5:45
mile.
"I think it was one of my better
races I've had here. I think it has
to do with me maturing as a run
nen" Milhouse said. "But we have
so much talent in the front pack of
our team. Any day, we could run
this race and someone else will
finish in front."
Alford-Sullivan said she was
happy with the men as well as the
women, saying the men have
shown much more focus and
determination already this sea
son. Led by juniors Kyle Dawson
and Vince McNally in the 8,000-
meter race, Penn State earned
two of the top seven spots.
Though Sullivan said she was
happy with the men's results,
McNally said he wanted to beat
unranked Navy, which finished in
third place, just ahead of the
Lions.
"It would have been nice to be
third. It was pretty close,"
McNally said. "It kind of sucks
Haven 3-1 on Sunday behind goals
by Brittany Grzywacz, Jessica
Longstreth and Lauren Purvis.
Coach Char
Morett said it
feels great for the
team to get back
to its winning
ways, but there's
always more to a
game than just
coming out with
the victory. Morett
"You know, it
does feel good to get a win,"
Morett said. "But you know, it's
always like, 'How did we play?' I
thought that we played a great
second half against Connecticut
[last weekend], and that's what we
talked about at halftime. We've
always come back in the second
"I'm really really excited about
Mike Miller's play" Nye said. "A
lot of his game is very sound and
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that we're trying to set our sights
on the Georgetowns and
Princetons, to have Navy slip in
there was a little disappointing."
McNally said the team will con
tinue trying to run as a pack for
the bulk of races, but identified a
weak spot in the team's game
Saturday on which to improve.
"It's kind of tricky, because we
wanted to run more as a team
[Saturday], but we went out a little
hot," McNally said. "Getting up
there with Kyle, [Chris] Cipro and
I in what I call the peloton, we
could have been back leading our
whole group of guys instead of
being in our own little pack out
front."
With the next meet coming on
Sept. 25 in Minnesota, both teams'
runners are anticipating competi
tion of even higher quality
And while neither team finished
above their expected perform
ance, McNally said September is
all about building up the team and
solidifying the team's strategy
"It's September, so I think this
was a good baseline, especially off
of what we were last year,"
McNally said. "We're content
[with this race] as a team. So
we're just going to build off this
race and keep getting better."
To e-mail reporter: zefsoos@psu.edu
half and played a better second
half. And I felt that we did that
today."
Not only did Penn State need
the win for the rankings and
standings, senior captain Daneen
Zug said pulling out the victory
was psychologically huge.
"It feels great. I think we need
ed to get that win," Zug said.
"Today was a big game. We want
to see those wins, we don't want to
see those loses, but when you play
tough teams, when you have a
tough schedule, it happens some
times and you've just got to play
through it. And I think we came
out well today"
Lock Haven was the first team
Penn State has played all season
that wasn't nationally ranked in
the top 20. Although it may seem
classmen struggled on what both
Nye and his golfers said was a
tough course.
McDonagh and fellow senior
T.J. Howe, the only two returning
members of the team who played
regularly last year, struggled
through the first two rounds and
entered the final round of play in
ties for 59th and 65th place,
respectively, in the 81-man field.
"I didn't play nearly as well as I
planned on," Howe said. "I was a
little rusty I haven't played com
petitively in about a month. There
was a little flaw in my swing that
caused me to have some issues
SPORTS
Jyr,
Lucia Sofo (4127) runs for Penn State at the Harvey Groves Spiked Shoe
Invitational this past weekend.
as if playing an easier opponent
would help the team relax, for
ward Lauren Purvis said it actual
ly did the opposite.
The freshman goal scorer said
it's in fact tougher to play a squad
the team is expected to beat. And
if the team didn't come out with a
win today, it would have been a
huge disappointment.
"Well there's always pressure to
do well and always win," Purvis
said. "But when you're the higher
seed it's kind of, 'lf you don't win
you're like, it's not good.' "
Morrett said the best way for
the team to overcome the added
pressure is to come out of the lock
er room with a game plan and
stick to it. She said executing the
aspects of the game they've
worked on in practice during the
and didn't allow me to put up some
very good numbers."
Howe recovered to shoot a 70 (-
1) on the final day, but
McDonagh's hardships continued
with a 78.
McDonagh, who set a personal
goal of being an All-American this
year, said that while he drove the
ball well he struggled with his
iron, which cost him.
"I'll be hitting balls all this
week," McDonagh said, "and
hopefully figure it out."
As a team, Penn State finished
12th out of 15 teams.
Meanwhile, the women's team
MONDAY, SEPT. 13, 2010 I 11
week is the main goal of the game.
After that, everything else will fall
into place.
"I think the kids probably feel a
little added pressure," Morett
said. "But I think for us, the youth
that we have on the field, let's try
to stick to the game plan, let's try
to keep the field spread."
But Morett said she was happy
with how her team handled the
expectations against Lock Haven
in Sunday's victory
"And I think you can see the way
we transferred the ball across the
field, that we were able to get the
ball down the field, was something
that we were very effective with
today," Morett said. "So that was
very positive."
To e-mail reporter: jrms4ol@psu.edu
on the road
opened its season Sunday at the
Cougar Classic hosted by the
College of Charleston.
The tournament will continue
through Tuesday, but Penn State
shot an opening-round 297 on
Sunday, leaving it tied for seventh
in the 21-team field.
"We have a much better team
attitude this year," said senior Gia
Fanelli, who shot an opening
round 73, tied for the team-best
with senior Giulia Carando. "We
are all just putting in the extra
time that we didn't last year"
To email reporter: mjcs29o@psu.edu