12 I Tuesday, Nov. 9,2010
Freshman journeys to her dream team
By Zack Feldman
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
As an eighth grader, Emily
Giannotti could not have dreamt
she would be
New to track, CROSS
Giannotti was COUNTRY
curious enough to
Pennsylvania track champi
onships, watching Boiling Springs
sophomore Kara Millhouse win
the state championship in the two
mile race.
The inspiration Giannotti got
from watching the final leg of the
race helped carry her to where
she is today running for Penn
State's cross country team, where
her captain and teammate is none
other than Millhouse.
"I had just gotten into running,
and the meet was on the local or
state channel,” the Coudersport
native said.
T watched as Kara was running
up front with this other girl. And I
watched Kara outkick her on the
last lap, and I thought, ‘That was
Emily Gianotti runs a lap during
practice at the Multi-Sport Facility.
Men’s basketball hoping to build off of Frazier’s energy
By Emily Kaplan
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
Coach Ed DeChellis said sopho
more Tim Frazier was going 100
mph the entire game.
In the Penn
Stat~ has-
cate men's
-team's
exhibition against
on Sunday,
Frazier was all over the court. And
the coach wants the point guard to
know it's OK to gear down.
Frazier who was the only dif
ferent starter from the 2009-10
season in Sunday's lineup
picked up 10 points, two steals and
a game-high six assists in Penn
Slate's 66-52 victory over the
Division II Warriors.
Schaefer’s first goal of season lifts team to Big Ten championship
By Andrew Robinson
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
Ali Schaefer sat upon her team
mates' shoulders hoisting, over
her head, the pointed slate-gray
and glass trophy with a gold oval
representing the
Big Ten title she
had just deliv-
ered.
Her teammates
knew nobodv else
could have scored the goal that
sent the Penn State women's soc
cer team to its 13th straight title.
"Of course it was Ali Schaefer,”
Nittanv Lions coach Erica Walsh
said.
"She's been the one all season
long that when you look and say.
We need that little extra bit,' she's
been the one that’s come through
with it. It couldn’t have happened
leers junior Seravalli returns from reconstructive groin surgery
By Anthony Barton
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
For the Penn State leers, Friday
night's game against West
Chester marked the return of one
of the team’s lead-
ing scorers from if.ERS
last year, junior
Nick Seravalli.
Coming back from full-groin
reconstructive surgery in the off
season. the forward logged his
first minutes since the leers were
eliminated in the ACHA National
Playoffs last spring.
awesome, I want to do that.’ ”
Almost five years later, the Penn
State freshman runner is now an
integral part of Penn State’s cross
country team.
Giannotti placed fourth overall
in her first career collegiate meet,
the team’s annual dual meet
against Lock Haven. Following
that first meet, which Giannotti
said was “almost like a practice”
because of the lack of competition,
she said she got her first jitters
before the Harry Groves Spiked
Shoe Invitational, where she fin
ished sixth.
“It was my first big race and
there was a lot of teams and it was
on our home course,” Giannotti
said.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever
raced [6,000-meters]. I was really
scared because people were push
ing, but I think the biggest differ
ence from high school was the last
kilometer. It seemed to go on for
ever.
“It was also kind of surreal, just
thinking, ‘l’m running for Penn
State,’ so I don’t really remember
the race. Just running as hard as I
could, then dying. ”
Giannotti has placed in the top
six of all but one of her races, most
recently placing sixth for Penn
State at the Big Ten champi
onships, helping the team to a
fourth-place finish.
Though Giannotti entered her
first collegiate cross country 7 sea
son this fall, she first entered
NCAA Division I without much
background on how to compete in
the sport.
Giannotti first took up running
in eighth grade, running under
coach Carl Klingaman, head
coach of both the men’s and
women's teams at Coudersport
Area Junior-Senior High School.
Klingaman immediately took
Giannotti under his wing when he
noticed how advanced a runner
she was already.
“I could really tell in eighth
grade she would be something
special if she wanted to be,”
Klingaman said. “It was a couple
different things. Mainly it was
because she was so much better
than anybody else. Her work ethic
was unbelievable. I had no prob
lems with her doing whatever I
asked her to do. She might com
plain every once in a while, but
she’d always do it.”
But while running seemed to
It was an energy the Lions said
they will look to build off this year,
but also something they hope can
be polished as the team works out
some early-season kinks.
"Right now he’s playing in one
gear: Superspeed,'' DeChellis
said. "He needs to
pick his moments.
then his speed is
much more useful
him.
The coach said
he wanted Frazier
who recorded a
team-high 28 min- ;
utes to play Crazier
when the game
was on the line. DeChellis said he
already knew what senior Talor
Battle, Penn State's leading scor
er in each of the last three sea
to a better person or a better play
er.”
The Las Vegas, Nev. native's
109th minute goal
against Michigan
was her first of the
year, but it was
arguably the
biggest goal of the
season. It was
also just the sec
ond goal of
Schaefer's Penn Schaefer
State career, her
other goal coming in the season
ending 6-2 loss to Virginia last
year.
Leaving Jeffrey Field Sunday,
the junior midfielder joked her
second goal felt a lot better
because it came in a win.
“Absolutely phenomenal,”
Schaefer said of the goal that
earned her a spot on
“I thought I played alright but
by no stretch am I where I want to
be, Seravalli said.
“It was coach's decision to put
me in the lineup so obviously I'm
going to play.”
Seravalli played most of last
season with a nagging groin injury
after getting injured in practice
last November.
An offseason MRI led to a sur
gery performed by noted surgeon
Dr. William Meyers to fix five groin
tears, a hernia and add extensions
to his abductors.
Seravalli did not play in
SPORTS
come naturally to her, Giannotti’s
first love was on the court.
At the school where she later
became the valedictorian of her
senior class, Giannotti had intend
ed to play basketball, only to
decide at a summer basketball
camp how much more she
enjoyed running.
“In ninth grade, I started varsity
and I ended up winning meets in
cross country and the two-mile in
track,” Giannotti said. “I thought,
T like this, and I’m pretty good,’ so
I quit basketball. I was running all
vear-round. and I started to love
it.”
Klingaman started
Coudersport’s cross country team
10 years ago. He said there were
limitations to Giannotti’s ability to
both train and compete in meets
because with roughly 60 students
a year in each graduating class,
the cross country program aver
aged between just seven to nine
girls a year.
Not wanting to see talent wast
ed. Klingaman, who once was
Giannotti’s chemistry teacher,
found other opportunities for
Giannotti, one of very few runners
who would show up in shape for
the beginning of cross country
season. After team practice
ended, Giannotti would continue
her own workouts.
“We don't have indoor track, so I
would find meets and take her to
them because she was really moti
vated to do well,” Klingaman said.
“I tried to get her into invitational
meets where she would have
some competition, and it was sur
prising to me that she would win
them. And she wouldn’t just win
them, she'd win by 20 seconds or
better, and she didn't ever seem to
have that much competition.”
Track and field for the star run
ner consisted of running the two
mile and one-mile races, as well as
the 4xBoo-meter and 4x400-meter
relays each meet, winning the
individual races easily.
With the lack of competition,
Klingaman was unsure how
Giannotti would respond once her
big opportunity would come.
“It worried me when she finally
got to states [in cross country sen
ior year], because she was finally
with a few 7 people who could run
with her," Klingaman said. “She
did w 7 ell. though and she got sixth
at states. That was one of the best
things to see her there. I would
sons, could do, and wanted to test
some of the younger guys out.
Frazier was the only starter on
the court for the last six minutes
or so of play. He was a catalyst to
the offense that surged from a
one-point halftime deficit to the
eventual 14-point exhibition win.
Battle picked up 12 of his 16
points in the sluggish first half
in which Penn State scored only 25
points but the second half was
all about equal distribution.
"Talor just came out hot,”
Frazier said. “He's a senior, some
times that's a lot of what the sen
iors do. They come out hot, they
know the rules. Us young
guys.. . we're still trying to learn
the rules, get in the flow of things.”
In the second half, Frazier was
right in the middle of it all. With
TopDrawerSoccer.com's Team of
the Week. “It could not have come
at a better time."
On senior day, Schaefer made
sure she sent Dani Toney and
Megan Monroig off as winners.
Monroig said she couldn’t have
asked for anything more.
“It's wonderful for Schaefer, she
absolutely deserves it,” Monroig
said. “She's one of the hardest
working people on our team.”
On Sunday. Schaefer fired seven
shots, a career high, getting four
on target, including the final shot
of the game. Primarily a holding
midfielder. Schaefer’s offensive
game has evolved this year.
A year ago, Schaefer was the
main reserve for the central mid
field, but took only 12 shots over 19
games. This year, the player who
scored 96 times at Green Valley
High School, has been more
Saturday's game. Coach Scott
Balboni said he will play one game
a senes until he is back in shape.
“It s a tough surgery to have as
a hockey player because it’s the
muscles you use the most,”
Balboni said. “I think he looked
good and I don’t think he looked
out of place.”
While icing both groins after the
game, Seravalli said he was in
some pain following the matchup
with the Golden Rams.
“It’s alright. It doesn’t feel great,
it doesn’t feel bad,” Seravalli said
after the game. “I’m just trying to
have hated to see her not make it,
because she worked so hard and
she really wanted that.”
Her freshman year of track and
field was even more promising,
when she could specialize in an
event. She placed fifth in the two
mile at the state outdoor track
finals, motivating her to keep pro
gressing.
“I kind of made it a goal I
wanted to win a state title before I
graduate,” Giannotti said. "Junior
year, I thought, ‘I want to keep
doing this. I don’t want to stop in
two more years.’ My senior year I
won that state title, and I was so
excited.”
During Giannotti’s junior year,
she realized she could take run
ning seriously, even beyond high
school. College programs began to
take notice of her performance,
including Penn State assistant
coach John Gondak and Cornell's
head coach. After taking trips to
visit both, Giannotti said the
choice was tough, making her
choice based on where she
thought she would be happiest in
case running did not work out.
When Giannotti arrived at Penn
State for training, teammates
such as junior captain Caitlin
Lane quickly took notice.
“I remember Emily on her visit
and hearing about her. and w 7 hen
she came in after the first few
practices, I knew she would fit
right in to the top seven." Lane
said. “I didn't know how into run
ning she was until these past few
meets, but she's definitely brought
a nice attitude to the team."
Giannotti credits some of her
success to Dr. David Yukelson,
Penn State's sports psychologist,
who she began seeing after find
ing it difficult to recover mentally
from a three-month bout with ane
mia during her junior year of high
school.
"I remember I thought. 'Why
should I even run anymore'?'
When the going got rough in
races, I would give up," Giannotti
said.
“We talked a lot about mv goals
and bringing the fun back into run
ning and not worrying about what
I can't control. I still work with him
to this day. and he does such a
good job calming me down and
keeping me focused. He's been a
big part of my success between
high school and now."
Giannotti, a kinesiology major.
7:43 left in the game. Frazier
helped cap off a 6-0 Lion run by
setting up senior Jeff Brooks for a
dunk that had the crowd at the
Bryce Jordan Center on its feet.
Then, with three minutes to go.
Frazier helped seal the win.
Happed in a double team deep
past the East Stroudsburg bench,
Frazier dribbled twice then simply
ran through the two defenders,
setting up a fast-break and assist
ing senior Steve Kirkpatrick on a
layup that gave Penn State a 12
point lead, the second-largest
margin of the night.
DeChellis noted those strong
plays, but also pointed out
Frazier’s four fouls, including a
“dumb” one right in front of the
Lions' bench in the second half.
“That's the kind of stuff that
inclined to fire off a shot.
A fearless slide into the box that
ended with a collision with
Michigan's goalkeeper. Schaefer
has evolved into a deep shooter
this year. Nearly every day. the
junior stays after practice to put
shot after shot on net from outside
the box, routinely scoiing impres
sive goals.
“She’s been working for it all
season long," Toney said. “She
wanted that goal and it's awesome
it came from her. It could have
come from anybody, everybody
was really working hard, doing
everything they could, throwing
their bodies into everything. She's
one of the players that does that
the best."
Needing a goal, Walsh made the
move to pull a defender for an
extra attacker, making Schaefer’s
role as a defender more impor-
roll with the punches right now.”
Junior assistant captain Paul
Daley said seravalli is a great
player who will definitely help the
team.
“One of his best assets is his
shot, he has a great release,”
Daley said. “It’s a pretty hard
shot.”
Daley said that shot will also aid
an already strong powerplay. The
leers are currentiy operating at a
37.1 percent clip.
Senior assistant captain Tim
O’Brien said the leers have been
lacking at the center position
The Daily Collegian
said a career path she hopes to fol
low someday would be in sports
psychology, like her mentor
Yukelson.
Even with Giannotti’s adjust
ment to a large school, head coach
Beth Alford-Sullivan said she was
expected to contribute right away,
though even Alford-Sullivan was
impressed with her determination
to better herself.
"Emily's come in and she's a
competitor she’s very excited to
make a difference at Penn State,
and those are the types of kids we
always want," Alford-Sullivan said.
"She’s stepped right into the
game and done a super job."
Successful in her first few
meets, she quickly earned the
chance to travel with the team
before earning a spot on the Big
Ten championship roster.
"She put herself into position to
make the Big Ten squad, and I
think that’s an underlying goal of
every freshman to make the travel
squad and to train through the
summer with that goal." Alford-
Sullivan said.
"She's achieved very well. I'm
very proud of her."
Already looking forward to
indoor track. Giannotti is excited
at seeing how she compares in
more specialized events, such as
the 3.000- and 5.000-meter races.
And though still a freshman.
Giannotti s inexperience has not
been a limiting factor when it
comes to looking toward the
future.
"My dream that's way out there
would be to go to the Olympics.
Who doesn't dream of that”"
Giannotti said. "But I need to take
baby steps. I'm only a freshman in
college."
Though Giannotti and her
coaches arc happy with how she
has performed so far. she will
always be in pursuit of a better
result.
"I'm never content. I always
think. I could have gone faster,' "
Giannotti said.
"Going into a meet. I always
want to I set a personal record.]
I'm definitely looking forward to
track because then I'll have a bet
ter understanding of where I am
against the top people in the
nation. But now I just need to keep
working at it. keep improving and
stav healthy."
To e-mail reporter: zefsoos@psu.edu
we've got to clean up," DeChellis
said. “But he's very active. He can
make free throws, he can make
other guys better, he's just trying
to settle in."
Battle said Frazier has done a
good job of t tying to be a leader for
the Lions.
Battle said the sophomore has
been focusing on distributing the
ball better and trying to limit
turnovers.
DeChellis thinks turnover num
bers will improve, as will Frazier's
play as long as the guard slows
down just a little bit.
"He can affect a game."
DeChellis said. “And that's what
we're trying to let him do, affect a
!o email reporter: exkso49@psu.edu
tant. The midfielder filled that role
perfectly, hustling back on every
Michigan attack and making fear
less tackles against 5-foot-11
Nkem Ezuiike. who had a six-inch
height advantage on Schaefer.
After scoring. Schaefer ran
through the growing huddle of her
teammates and out to midfield,
saying she felt like running home
to Las Vegas and giving her mom
a hug. Teammates have noted the
junior's spontaneous attitude and
it wasn't the first time they've
seen an emotion-fed celebration.
This one just meant a little bit
more. “Even in practice she cele
brates like she just won the World
Cup or something." junior captain
Emma Thomson said. "She stuck
in there and took the opportunity
when it came. She deserved it.”
To e-mail reporter: adrso79@psu.edu
throughout the year, and have
been playing guys out of position
to make up tor it. U Bnen said
Seravalli will play center, giving
the team strength up the middle.
Seravalli will have extra rehab
sessions to strengthen the groins
as well as practice with the team.
“I’m never going to be 100 per
cent, but I hope to get a little bit
better as the season moves
along,” Seravalli said. “I’m just
going day by day at this point to
see how I feel.”
To e-mail reporter: acbsls2@psu.edu