14 I Monday, Dec. 6, 2010
Inconsistency dooms leers
By Greg Garcia
COLLEGIAN STAFF WRITER
What a difference 24 hours can
make.
After a lopsided 4-0 victory
against No. 4
Delaware
Friday
head coach Scott
finally
Balboni
believed he witnessed his team’s
best all-around performance this
season.
With a 28-save shutout perform
ance from freshman goaltender
Mathew Madrazo and the return
of three key players, the No. 11
Penn State leers (12-5-0, 3-3-0
ESCHL) seemed as if they would
carry that momentum into
Saturday afternoon's rematch.
Saturday marked the tale of
another team. The leers' offense
managed to put up only two goals
on the scoreboard and watched
the Blue Hens (17-1-1, 6-1-1
ESCHL) tally seven of their own,
Lady leers one win away from reaching team goal
By Christine Newby
FOR THE COLLEGIAN
Coach Mo Stroemel hopes to
accomplish two goals during the
Lady leers' trip to play Elmira’s
junior varsity
team: Add anoth-
er win to their 7-4
record and sched-
ule a game for
next year against Elmira's varsity
team.
The Lady leers face the Soaring
Eagles' junior varsity squad at 7
tonight, at Elmira, a a small school
in southern New York.
Elmira's varsity team is
Division 111, and Stroemel is eye
ing up the team as a possible
opponent for next season.
"When I'm [at Elmira], I’m
meeting with their varsity coach
Club boxing reversing trends, getting off to hot start
By Rob Quinn
FOR THE COLLEGIAN
The Penn State boxing club
knows what it wants: respect.
Following a 13-4
start to the year —-
this fall, it's hard
to imagine any- „
body overlooking " '
them now. :^
"We got robbed
in a few fights." said vice president
Brad Stauber, a junior.
We could easily be 15-2.
The quick start to the 2010-11
season is refreshing for a proud
club that, in recent years, had fall
en on hard times.
While the club's resurgence
owes to several factors, the
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winning the game in blowout fash
ion.
In what junior forward Paul
Daley described as a “huge break
down,” the leers’ loss is reminis
cent of their inconsistency this
season.
Aside from a six-game winning
streak to start the season, the
leers have gone a mediocre 6-5 in
their last 11 games.
ICERS
Four of those six wins have
come against unranked and his
torically dominated West Chester
and Towson.
Assistant coach Josh Hand is
still attempting to figure out what
exactly went wrong on Saturday.
All Hand could do was attribute
the recent loss to mental lapses.
“It’s really confusing why one
game you’re on and then you can't
do anything right the next game,”
the first-year assistant said.
“Friday night was completely dif
ferent. We just flip flopped.”
Balboni agreed with Hand say
ing the team lacked mental focus.
to see if I can arrange a game for
next year with their varsity team
so we'll see what happens,”
Stroemel said.
Beginning in the 2012-2013 sea
son, the Lady leers will move to
Division I, rather than their cur
rent club position. Stroemel said
he already has several Division 111
schools lined up to play next year
which will serve as a transition
into competing against Division I.
Three Division 111 universities
set to play the Lady leers are
Chatham, the State University of
New York at Potsdam and SUNY
Cortland.
The Lady leers played Elmira's
junior varsity team last year and
won, 3-2.
“I thought we outplayed them
[last season],” Stroemel said.
“We played a lot of the game in
results, thus far, have been unde
niable.
“Our biggest accomplishment
of the fall was definitely going 6-1
in bouts against Army,” said club
President Matt Roy. “They usually
set the standard for collegiate box
ing. They’ve won four of the last
five national titles.”
Both Stauber and Roy believe
the team’s improvement and suc
cess are due in large part to
coaching, including the arrival of
assistant coach Osahon Omo-
Osagie, a national champion and
two-time All-American in his time
at Lock Haven.
“Os does a good job of helping
individuals find their style," Roy, a
junior boxer, said. “Just a fresh
take really helped us a lot.”
SPORTS
The leers had a man in the penal
ty box for 44 minutes throughout
the weekend, which included both
game misconduct and unsports
manlike conduct calls.
Additionally, with Penn State trail
ing only 2-1 on Saturday, the leers
immediately allowed three goals
in a matter of 35 seconds, deflating
the comeback attempt.
After the series, Balboni felt he
made the right decision by stick
ing with the same personnel that
looked so impressive the night
before.
“It didn’t matter if we changed
anything,” Balboni said. “The situ
ation is we need to play better
hockey.”
Daley felt the high emotions
from Friday night's game might
have carried over into Saturday.
The junior said everyone was
pumped for the game and maybe
his team started to feel overconfi
dent.
“In perspective, it's not that bad
of a loss,” Daley said.
their end. We just couldn't score. I
think this year we have a few more
goal scorers, and we are shooting
better than we were last year. If
we can play in their end again,
we’ll be fine. We just had trouble
putting the puck in the net. We
outshot them. We outplayed them.
We even missed a wide open net
completely. It was that sort of
game.”
Junior defender Lydia Scott
said they can’t underestimate
Elmira's junior varsity team.
“You never know how many
players they get each year, who's
back or who's not,” Scott said. "We
have to make sure to play hard,
stay focused and not worry about
what happened last year."
The Lady leers didn't practice
over Thanksgiving break, but the
time off doesn't faze the team
Another huge factor has been
the sheer amount of fights and
training the club has been able to
squeeze in this fall.
In college boxing many fighters
join clubs with little to no experi
ence at all, so the experience of its
boxers goes a long way in deter
mining the overall success of a
team.
Penn State added 30 new fight
ers while training this fall.
“Experience is huge in college
boxing," Stauber said. "Some
schools throw kids in there like
sacrificial lambs. We're not going
to get you hurt like that."
The spring season will go a long
way in determining just how far
the club has come.
Penn State will have to measure
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— 1
in weekend split
George Saad (left, white) celebrates a goal during the leers’ win Friday.
"We split with a team ranked have to go back to what we do.”
ahead of us. knowing we didn’t
play our best the second game. We To e-mail reporter: gjgso44@psu.edu
about its chances in tonight's
matchup.
"I don't think we are going to
have any trouble bouncing back."
Scott said.
"I think everyone works out on
their own so I don't think we will
have a hard time getting back in
shape."
Junior defender Abby Miller,
along with Stroemel. also believes
not practicing for a week shouldn't
be a factor in how the Lady leers
perform tonight.
After tonight's game, Penn
State has a month and a day off
from competition.
The University of Rhode Island
will travel to the Ice Pavilion for an
American Collegiate Hockey
Association (ACHA) showdown on
Jan. 7.
[A win against Elmira] is really
up to powerhouses Lock Haven.
Maryland, and Army in the region
al championships in the late
spring, of which they are the host,
in order to secure berths in the
national tournament.
"Our final goal is. honestly, to
win nationals." Rov said.
"We want to send a full team to
regionals, which means having a
fighter in every weight class, and
we want to win enough fights in
nationals to win the team title."
Stauber added. "We want to
take that away from Army, that
would be huge. We want to earn
that respect from other schools"
For that to happen, the Lions
will have to rely not only on coach
ing. but each team member s indi
vidual efforts, a drive that Rov
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The Daily Collegian
important because we can end the
semester 8-4 which we've never
done before,” Scott said. “I think
that will give us a lot of momen
tum going into our games in
January, even though we have a
month off.
Just finishing it on a good note
is going to make sure morale is
high and we'll be excited to come
back and ready to play."
Miller said the team’s long-term
goal has been to finish the semes
ter, 8-4.
"We really want this win. and I
think we will be really ready for
this game.” Miller said.
:*•'£*( To hear more from the
*C ja jr Lady leers, check out the
au( jj o slideshow at:
psucollegian.com
says never left the squad's play
ers.
"Winning doesn't come from the
coaches putting pressure on us as
fighters," Roy said.
“Winning is just a team culture,
we've always had that."
The collegiate boxing spotlight
figures to be heading Penn State’s
way at just the right time this
spring.
In addition to the men’s region
al tournament, Penn State will
host a show in February and the
first ever women’s national cham
pionship tournament.
To some, it seems, the pressure
is a welcome arrival.
Stauber asked, “If you strive to
be anything less than a champ,
then what are you working for?”