14 I Friday, Sept. 17, 2010 Men’s soccer prepping for mile-high opponents By Andrew Robinson COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER A town named Colorado Springs may not seem that threatening, but find yourself in the wrong situ ation, say down a goal, and it’s the last place anyone would want to be. It doesn’t help that any team that walks into Cadet Soccer Stadium is going to face 90 min utes of endless pressure from a tough, disciplined team on a field surrounded by a line of screaming cadets. Then, there’s the minor detail of the opponent being the United States Air Force. The No. 23 Penn State men’s soccer team gets to face this at 7 p.m. on Friday when it takes on the Air Force Academy in the first of two games in Colorado this weekend. "First thing about them is, after you're finished with the match you go, 'You know what? I’m really glad those guys are defending my country,' ” Penn State coach Bob Warming said. “They never quit and, two, they are just relentless in how much they pressure you.” Warming regularly played Air Force during his time at Creighton Lions looking for success in Maryland tournament Howe puts during a 2008 match Lady Ruggers welcome Michigan to West Campus By Greg Fernandez COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER Heading into its first game against Michigan on Saturday, the common theme for the Penn State women’s rugby team has been simple it’s time to tackle someone else. Having practiced for five weeks, the Lady Ruggers have only been able to scrimmage each other. The team's match at noon Saturday against Michigan will be the team’s first game since winning its second straight national championship last spring. While coach Pete Steinberg said Michigan is considered an up-and-coming women’s rugby program, he said the team is not worrying too much about the outcome of the game, but more about how they perform throughout the match. 'I don't care if we impose our will because I think that’s going to happen any way," Steinberg said. “We’re just going to try and continue to work things that we’ve been doing in prac tice.” Steinberg reiterated that lineouts were going to be a concern for the team, after showing inconsistent play during the alumni match, but the game against Michigan would be a good step toward improving on its lineouts. This game will be the team’s first chance to unveil its quicker paced offense. Junior Sadie Anderson, recently voted team cap tain, said she’s excited to see how the team plays in its first action of the year. “I can’t wait to see how we start putting Deven Owsiany (left) outruns members of Marlyand’s rugby team last season. Owsiany and the rest of the Lady Ruggers will face Michigan at home this weekend. “[Air Fbrce] are just relentless.” and said there’s a lot of testos terone in the air when playing in Colorado Springs. With toe cadets around toe field, Warming said any deficit turns toe game into “an absolute war.” The Falcons have struggled to a 1-3 start this season and are just 1- 1 at home. Despite toe record, the Lions know a disciplined team will test them. “They’ll probably be very disci plined, good at defending and extremely fit,” senior midfielder Drew Cost said. “We’ve got to come and move toe ball like we know how and if we do what we do well we should be fine.” Making toe challenge harder is the fact toe game will be played more than a mile above sea level. To prepare for Friday’s game with Air Fbrce and Sunday’s game with Denver, the Lions left Wednesday afternoon and trained in Colorado Thursday. Though playing in Denver has historically been a geographical By Katie Montgomery COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER The saying ‘a chain is only as strong as its weakest link’ holds true for toe Penn State men’s golf team. After finishing mciu’c i'ni c in 12th place at 5 GOLF the Wolf Run Intercollegiate last Sunday it was hard to find the Nittany Lions’ weakest link, so much so that coach Greg Nye struggled to final ize toe roster for toe Maryland Intercollegiate this weekend. But freshman Michael Miller was one player who was a shoe-in to make an appearance. “We were delighted with [Miller’s] play last weekend,” Nye Women’s Rugby at home vs. Michigan Noon, Saturday West Campus Pitch WOMEN'S RUGBY the pieces together that we have been working on in practice,” Anderson said. “It’ll be good to see the different concepts we are trying to get instead of just being athletic and running around people.” The team in practice has been working on some ball movement with the backs. With passes coming in through the back, the team will have to communicate with each other, something senior Deven Owsiany said they have been working on leading up to the game. “Talking everything out is the biggest thing,” Owsiany said. Steinberg For some of the players, this will be their first collegiate rugby game, though Owsiany said some of the rookies, who already played in an intrasquad scrim mage on Sunday, began to speak up and became more comfortable as the game went on. Some of the rookies will get to play on the A Side. Steinberg said he’s excited to see which one of them will come in with the opportunity, step up and play well. This game will mark the beginning of the team’s title defense, and Michigan is it’s first roadblock. “It’s going to be real nice to actually hit someone from another team,” Anderson said. “While you want to hit someone hard in practice you don’t want to injure your own player, but you still want to make them bet ter. We are all excited that we get to hit someone else for a change.” challenge for teams in any sport, senior defender Andres Casais wasn’t sure how much the altitude would play into toe team’s per formance. Bob Warming men’s soccer coach “I’m not a scientist,” Casais said. “But we’ll see how it goes. It’s a mile high in Denver, but we’re in toe mountains [in State College]. We’ll get accustomed, I don’t know if one practice will do it right away, but we’ll do our best.” Warming and the players agreed this road trip will be tax ing, but having it early in the sea son will also help show the team where it stands. Denver is off to a 2-1-1 start and Warming said it will be a challeng ing opponent coming off a week end where the Pioneers tied No. 16 Portland and beat No. 20 Georgetown. Though the Lions have some work to do before hitting the strongest part of their schedule. Warming said one thing takes pri ority on this trip. “That’s all I really want to get out of it is two wins to tell you the truth,” Warming said. "It’s been a long time since we won two in a row on the road.” said. “He came in as a brand new freshman and went to [toe Wolf Run Intercollegiate] and played outstanding golf. So we’re very encouraged by that.” In his collegiate debut, Miller led the team with a three-round total of 217 (70-75-72), ending tied for sixth in the tournament, Seniors T.J. Howe and Tommy McDonagh both competed in last weekend’s tournament and fin ished tied for 32nd and 66th, respectively. Sophomores Ernesto Marin and Anthony DeGol round out toe rest of the team representing Penn State this weekend and will each get their first chance to compete To email the reporter: gmfso47@psu.edu SPORTS To e-mail reporter: adrso79@psu.edu But Miller is only one link in toe chain. Jordan Staal skates Staal to miss start of season PITTSBURGH Penguin- Jordan Staal ne«.> f.v., to v, recover from the ia:e>.; proe-jut, formed on his injured right foot and will miss the start of the NHL season A tendon on the top of Steal's foot was sliced when Canadiens defenseman EK Subban stepped on it dur ing an April 30 playoff game. Steal had sur gery and returned to play in less than a week. After the Penguins were eliminated in the series, Steal had two additional proce dures to remove infected tissue in the foot, including another operation. Staai also required treatment with antibiotics. The 22-year-old Steal has never missed a regular season game to injury in four NHL seasons, but has done little skating this summer because of the injury. A final ist for the Selke Thtphy as the league’s top defensive forward, he wore a walking boot and was on crutches during the NHL awards dinner June 23. “Jordan developed a post-op infection in his foot, and it required several procedures to ensure that all infected tissues were removed,” Penguins physician Charles Bob Warming (right) and Andres Casais talk earlier this season “Sometimes teams can psyche themselves out.” for the Nittany Lions this season. DeGol will make his collegiate debut after being added to the ros ter late last week. The team is set to tee off on the 6,801-yard River Marsh Golf Club course in Cambridge, Md.. Saturday for two rounds of compe tition. The final round of the tourna ment will be played Sunday. Also competing are Penn, South By Alan Robinson ASSOCIATFO PRESS WRITER Carolina Aiken, Maryland, Francis Marion, George Mason, George Washington, James Mar” -on. Navy, UNC-Wilmington, Old dominion, Toledo, William & Mary and Xavier. Greg Nye men's golf coach Nye hopes to use toe fact some of the other teams are more famil iar with the course to Penn State’s advantage. “Golf courses can change due to weather,” Nye said. “Sometimes teams that are familiar with [the course] can psyche themselves out. “There’s a bunch of teams down there that we re familiar with and we hope that we can come away with a W.” To e-mail reporter: kems23B@psu.edu Kick said in "Jordan was bothered by a localized reeumm? imecskm in the tissue area near the tendon : This has required treat mesh will; antibiotics and several repeat debridements (clean-outs) to remove injected tissue. We are confident the situation has been resolved.” The Penguins open training camp Friday and begin the season Oct. 7 at home against Philadelphia. If Steal returns in five weeks, P could play as early as Oct. 21 at Nashville. (--warci "The most important thing now is that the infection has been addressed and Jordan is on the road to recovery,” Penguins genera! manager Ray Shero said. "While wfe know he is disappointed that he wall miss the start of the season, he will now be able to make a full recovery and get back on the ice early in the sea son.” Steal had 21 goals and 28 assists last season and led the Penguins with a plus-19 rating. He had a career high 29 goals as a rookie in 2006-07. Staai usually centers the Penguins’ No. 3 line, but is expected to move up to their No. 2 line this season with Evgeni Malkin shifting from center to a wing to play alongside him. The Daily Collegian Andrew Dunheimer/Collegian Associated Press ,e y Cup Playoffs. iaioment released by the
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