Blue White Illustrated

WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL Ninth-ranked Penn State came from behind to take a 9ve-set victory over No. 5 Nebraska on Oct. 13 at Rec Hall. It was the 9rst vic- tory over the Cornhuskers for every player on the Nittany Lions' 2018 roster. Penn State hadn't beaten Nebraska since November 2014. Current PSU players Nia Reed and Bryanna Weiskircher were on that team but sat out the season while redshirting. Penn State took the 9rst set, 25-22, but then dropped the next two, 25-11 and 26-24. The Lions trailed 20-17 in the fourth set, but junior Emily Sciorra went on a service run that brought them even at 20-20 before the Huskers got a kill to again take the lead. A Husker hit- ting error and an ace by Kendall White gave the Nittany Lions their 9rst lead since 12-10. They held on for a 25-23 victory. After fending off Nebraska's bid to end the match in four sets, Penn State never trailed in the fifth. Reed opened with a kill, the first of five she put down for the Nittany Lions, helping them prevail, 15-9. White was huge factor for the Lions in the backcourt, as she commanded the defense with a match-high 25 digs, adding a season-high three aces, all coming in the crucial fourth set. Weiskircher 9nished with her 9;h dou- ble-double in conference play, as she to- taled 48 assists and a season-high 16 digs. FIELD HOCKEY Sixth-ranked Penn State withstood a late rally to down No. 15 Northwestern, 4-3, on Oct. 14 in Evanston. The Lions built a 4-1 hal;ime lead on goals by Abby Myers, Bree Bed- narski, Mary Nell Smith and Alexis Horst and held on for the victory in their 9nal Big Ten road game of the season. "We played very well in the 9rst half a;er giving up that early goal," head coach Char Morett-Curtiss said. "We played with poise and aggressively in the 9rst half. We can't let teams come back the way Northwestern did in the second half, but they are a good team and pressed us. Our defense held strong at the end of the game." One week earlier, Penn State upset No. 2 Maryland, 3-1, handing the visiting Terrapins their 9rst loss of the season. Myers, Anna Simon and Moira Putsch scored to give the Lions a 3-0 lead that they never relinquished. MEN'S SOCCER Penn State ended Wis- consin's 9ve-game winning streak with a 1-0 victory Oct. 14 at Je:rey Field. Freshman Jeremy Rafanello scored in the 80th minute on an assist from senior Dani Marks. It was the third goal of the season for Rafanello, a forward from Delran, N.J. "I hope that proves to be a really sig- ni9cant Big Ten win," head coach Je: Cook said a;er watching his team im- prove to 4-6-2 overall and 2-2-2 in the Big Ten. "We knew that was a really im- portant victory, to get us as high up in the standings as we can get. I'm de- lighted for the players. I thought their discipline and the way they stuck to the challenge was really impressive. I'm de- lighted we got the all-important goal to win the game today." WOMEN'S SOCCER Penn State extended its winning streak to 9ve games when it defeated No. 21 Rutgers, 1-0, on Oct. 14 at Je:rey Field. Senior mid9elder Marissa Sheva scored the only goal of the game early in the second half o: an assist from Frankie Tagliaferri. It was Sheva's 9rst goal of the season. As a team, the Nittany Lions outshot the Scarlet Knights 12-9. ■ F A L L S P O R T S R O U N D U P that the program's internal evaluations often differ from the expectations held by those outside of the Nittany Lions' dressing room. Those external opinions tend to be based almost exclusively on how the scoreboard reads at the end of the game. "Specifically, it's our foundation of 'What are we committed to? How does it fit into this university?' To be honest, I had talked with our hockey administra- tor about what the expectations are, and the reality is that there is a difference," Gadowsky said. "We can pretend there isn't, but there is." The Nittany Lions, without debate, have accomplished a lot in a very short period of time since their inception as a varsity program. Appreciation for that big-picture reality can make it difficult to evaluate them. Is it fair to speak criti- cally of the Lions' smaller-scale mis- steps, such as the 4-1 drubbing they absorbed against Denver last March in an NCAA Regional game they hosted, when they're so far ahead of schedule? Speaking with reporters days after that loss, Gadowsky said it was "fair to won- der" how Penn State was going to im- prove. The exchange represented one of the Nittany Lions' first real acknowl- edgements of the concept of expecta- tions, of the external pressure that, in Gadowsky's view, shouldn't change the program's approach. Whatever the outside perception, the Nittany Lions have their own ideas about what defines success. And their goals aren't conservative. "I don't think we expect anything other than a Big Ten championship," junior forward Nate Sucese said. "That's our initial goal. As our program gets older, I think our goal in the regular sea- son should be a regular-season champi- onship as well." Junior forward Liam Folkes echoed his teammate's appraisal, saying that he would like to see the Nittany Lions get "back to where we were my freshman year." Folkes scored the goal that clinched Penn State's first Big Ten championship, and he sees a reprise of that triumph as the starting point for the next step in the program's development. "We have all the tools right now to make a run for a national champi- onship," he said, "but [the goal is] just getting back to where we know we can be." ■

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