I Thursday, Oct. 21, 2010
Lions earn road sweep of OSU
By Emily Kaplan
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
In Wednesday night's match,
sophomore Kristin Carpenter
thought her team had energy,
played well
tr ’ther - ?d -
together, passes
efficiently and WOMEN'S
played good VOLLEYBALL
defense.
But what the
setter was most happy about was
that the Nittany Lions did that all
on the road.
Jason Lee (2) prepares to kick the ball during the Penn State's 2-1 overtime loss to UMBC Wednesday night at Jeffrey Field
Retrievers top Lions in overtime
By Andrew Robinson
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
Add a 30-vard strike flavored
with a bit of luck to the list of
bizarre ways the Penn State
team has lost at
home this season.
After turning in SOCCER
their worst half of
soccer at home all
season in the first half Wednesday
night, the Nittany Lions rallied
Secondary seeing
shake up after injury
By Andrew J. Cassavell
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITFR
For all the struggles the Penn State
defense went through during the first halt
of the season, the secondary managed to
stay relatively effective.
Now, one of the Nittanv
Lions' top units during the
season's first half, faces a
pair of major shakeups.
During the bye week, the
team learned Nick Sukav.
a junior safety will be out
for the season with a torn
pectoral muscle, and Chaz
Powell, a junior corner
back. will make the switch .
to defense from wide Sukay
receiver.
is r 0 H i b is
Philadephia at San Francisco
Game 5 NLCS
7:30 p.m., FOX
Q: What year did San Francisco
Giants’ second baseman Freddy Sanchez
win a batting title?
Wednesday’s Answer Game 5 of the 1983
World Series against Baltimore.
"Oh my gosh, this was the first
away match that we all started
clicking,”
Carpenter said.
"And it felt good.”
The No. 9 Penn
State women s Penn State
volleyball team
(16-4'6-3 Big Ten)
swept Big Ten foe
Ohio State <25-22.
25-21,25-18) at st. Ohio State
John Arena in
Columbus, Ohio.
It was the Lions' first road win
back in the second halt to force
overtime againsU'niver.sily of
M a r y I a n d
Baltimore rounty
However, a long
ball played to Milo
Kapor turned into UMBC
a bending shot
that gave the
Retrievers a 2 1
win at .Jetfrev
Field Penn State
it's really dis
appointing. there's not much
The injury and the decision to move
Powell had a ripple effect on the Lions, too.
Drew Astorino. typically the unit's strong
safety, or as Penn State calls it "hero,"
takes over at free safety, where he strug
gled against Illinois after Sukav went down
in the first quarter.
"It's pretty different than the position I
have been playing, but you just get used to
it." Astorino said. "You got to stay slow 1 , you
got to make your reads and read the quar
terback, and just trust that you know' what
you're doing. I know all the coverages. I
know what I'm doing."
FOOTBALL
Astorino's move opens the door for red
shirt junior Andrew Dailey to take over at
hero. He started there over Astorino
against Temple and has 11 tackles on the
season.
Baseball to play in Challenge
The Penn State baseball team will once
again compete in the annual Big East/ Big
Ten Challenge which is slated for February
18 20 at various ballparks in the Clearwater
and St. Petersburg area in Florida.
Penn State will open the event on Friday,
February 18 at 10 a.m. when the squad bat
tles Seton Hall at historic A 1 Lang Field.
The following day, the Nittanv Lions will
square off with West Virginia at 1 p.m. at
Jack Russell Stadium before wrapping up
the event on Sunday at 10 a.m. with a game
against Notre Dame at the Walter Filler
Baseball Complex.
Ticket information for the 2011 Challenge
will be released at a later date.
since Sept. 26. Before
Wednesday’s match, Penn State
had lost five of its last six contests
away from Rec Hall.
"We showed earlier in the sea
son that it’s difficult to win on the
road,” senior co-captain Blair
Brown told the Big Ten Network
after the match. "With energy in
the gym it's really hard."
On Wednesday night, though,
the Lions made it look easy.
Penn State recorded a com
bined .309 hitting percentage
compared to the Buckeyes'(l6-6.
more we can say, we played terri
bly tonight and we lost for it," sen
ior co-captain Drew Cost said.
The Lions started slow and
looked out of sync throughout the
first half and didn't register a sin
gle shot on goal until about ten
minutes into the second half.
While the team undoubtedly
played below their standards, it
did start shorthanded.
Senior midfielder Matheus
Braga has been battling some
minor injuries all year and did not
See SECONDARY. Page 12
4-5) .202. Meanwhile the Lions had
balanced offensive production as
Brown led the way with 13 kills
and senior Arielle Wilson and
freshman Deja McClendon each
tallied nine.
That was a stark contrast to
Penn State’s last road trip. On Oct.
8 and Oct. 9, the Lions dropped
back-to-back matches to Purdue
and Indiana, both unranked at the
time.
“The Big Ten is a tough place to
play,” senior libero Alyssa
D’Errico said. “It’s competitive
start, while junior striker Corey
Hertzog sat the entire first half
battling the flu. But Penn State
coach Bob Warming said the jun
ior wanted to play from the start.
In the second half, Hertzog was
in the starting formation and pro
vided energy for the team.
With 14:27 left in the game.
Hertzog scored his NCAA-leading
See SOCCER. Page 12
More coverage on men's soccer |
SPORTS, Page 14.
Daniel Bott/Collegian
Mia Nickson (24) goes for a
layup during the Lady Lions
practice on Oct. 11.
Enter Collegian Pick ’Em
Every week, the Collegian’s sports edi
tors go up against some of the biggest
names on Penn State’s campus in an NFL
picking contest
Included in the pool each week is a Penn
State student selected by the editors. Want
to be that student this week?
Then listen closely.
For the chance to be included in the pick
'em, e-mail the answers to today’s trivia
question (to the left) to Collegian Sports
Chief Paul Casella.
Paul's e-mail address is
p1c5032(" psu.edu
Send your answers to Paul, first one to
correctly answer the question gets brag
ging rights and the chance to make picks.
And a chance to prove you’re smarter
than the Collegian’s sports editors and
some of Penn State’s biggest names.
everywhere you go. And you know
everywhere you go the other
team’s going to bring their A'
game. So anytime you can snag a
win in somebody else s gym. that's
a good win.”
Even though Wednesday night’s
victory was a sweep, the match
was tight and even heated at
times.
Toward the end of the second
set, with the score knotted at 19.
senior Eatima Balza jumped up to
intercept an Ohio State overpass
See SWEEP. Page 12
Sarah Finnegan/CoMegian
Captain Nickson
leads by example
By Jake Kaplan
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
Mia Nickson was surprised when Penn State Lady
Lions coach Coquese Washington tabbed her as one of
the squad's co-captains for the upcoming season.
Not only has Nickson never been a
captain on any level, but the forward
hasn’t played one second in an official WOMEN'S
game for the Lady Lions
"You can count on Mia to do the
right thing at the right time all the
time," Washington said at the team's media day on
Oct. 11. "She is a great student, she is a great role
model in that sense. She has a caring spirit and she
looks out for her teammates and makes sure they are
doing the right things and giving them, the right
advice. I just think she is somebody that they look up
to and follow her lead in all areas."
Nickson was forced to sit out last season after trans
ferring from Boston College. A junior with three years
See NICKSON. Page 12
JoePa wants to see faces
Joe Patemo thinks one way to reduce
the problem of helmet-to-helmet collisions
in football could be going old school and
taking facemasks off players’ helmets.
The 83-year old coach vividly remem
bers his days playing football at Brown,
when helmets lacked the caging on the
front, and players were unable to use their
helemts as weapons as they often do in
today’s game. We would love to see football
go all “Leatherheads” and remove the
facemasks. Not only could it reduce injury,
but it could make all those throwbacks the
NFL markets even more realistic. That,
and we might get to see some bloody, Paul
Posluszny-style noses, too.
The Daily Collegian
O-line
looks to
exploit
Minn.
By Audrey Snyder
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
Stefen Wisniewski wasn't even
aware Penn State is playing
against the Big Ten's worst run
defense Saturday.
Despite Minnesota's defense
being gashed by
the opposition -- r3 , n
for an average tuuidAU
of 201 rushing ‘
yards per game. Wisniewski said
his team needs to continue
working on its own improve
ment.
For an offensive line that has
faced a lot of criticism this year.
Wisniewski said the unit
"deserves our fair share of the
blame."
But after spending much of
the bye week working on the
running game and trying to fig
ure out the offense's identity, in
order to improve there are two
components the line is tiying to
work on: better technique and a
more aggressive attitude.
See LINE. Page 12
Saran '
Evan Royster carries the ball
BASKETBALL