Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1138762
Hopkins, the top-seeded Lions rolled
through the first two rounds of the NCAA
tournament, defeating UMBC in the first
round, 25-10, and topping Loyola Mary-
land in the quarterfinals, 21-14. The
joyride ended with the loss to Yale, but
Penn State concluded its season with a
16-2 record, the best in school history.
Individually, several players set school,
conference and even national records.
Ament led the way, setting the NCAA
mark for most assists in a season with 96,
including five in the loss to Yale. His av-
erage of 5.65 assists per game was the
highest in NCAA history, smashing the
record of 5.25 that had belonged to
Drexel's Dennis Fink since 1978. A red-
shirt junior from Doylestown, Pa., Ament
now has 160 career assists, the most in
Big Ten history. Named the Big Ten's Of-
fensive Player of the Year, he showed his
resilience with his record-setting junior
season; he had been forced to sit out the
2018 season with an injury.
"He has grown so much," Tambroni
said, "not necessarily as a lacrosse player
but as a teammate first and foremost and
as a leader. He has mentored so many
young men in that locker room. We have
a young group of players, especially on
the offense like T.J. Malone, Cole Willard,
these freshmen who came in and were
certainly green and looking for somebody
to look up to, and Grant put his arm
around them and did a phenomenal job.
"So his greatest assists through the
course of the year probably happened in
the locker room – the way that he pre-
pares himself on a day-to-day basis. He
lives it. It's a lifestyle for him, it's not just
a game day approach. What I hope will
happen is he's going to come back and
continue to have an impact on this pro-
gram, on and off the campus. He's phe-
nomenal in the community, and I hope
more and more young men on our team
start to mimic and imitate him, because I
think he's going to have a long-lasting
impression on this program."
The Lions also got a huge lift from sen-
ior Chris Sabia, the Big Ten Defensive
Player of the Year, and junior Mac
O'Keefe, who led the nation with an av-
erage of 4.33 goals per game. Sabia joined
Ament
on the USILA first-team All-
America squad, while O'Keefe was a sec-
ond-team choice. Senior Nick Spillane
also received second-team recognition,
while junior Gerard Arceri and sopho-
more Jack Kelly earned third-team hon-
ors. Juniors Tommy Wright, Nick Cardile
and Colby Kneese were honorable men-
tion choices. Before this season, Penn
State had only produced two first-team
All-Americans in its history: George Rit-
ter in 1940 and Austin Kaut in 2013.
Penn State had never made it past the
first round of the NCAA tournament
prior to the 2019 season, and the outside
expectations back in February seemed to
be in line with that history. The Lions had
been fielding a competitive program for
years, but they had never broken through
to establish themselves on a national
championship level. Now, though, the
ceiling feels a bit higher. After the
matchup with Yale, Tambroni was asked
what his team's performance this year
will do for its long-term outlook. Even in
the wake of a disappointing loss, the vet-
eran coach was upbeat.
"It
was a phenomenal year for me as a
coach and I think for Penn State lacrosse,"
Tambroni said. "It brought a lot of our
alums back together. There've been a ton
of email chains of just guys reconnecting
with old teammates. We have just such a
phenomenal, loyal fan base. If for nothing
else [it was a success in] maybe just
bringing people together. I don't know
what it's going to do for tomorrow or next
year, 10 years down the road, but maybe
these young men – 19-, 20-year-old
young men – helped to rekindle relation-
ships from teammates that are going to go
back and last a lifetime, and those guys
need to be proud of that.
"On the other side, I hope it gives us lit-
tle credibility in the lacrosse world as
someone that can compete. Now, you've
got to compete day in and day out, and
you've got to find a way to get over the
hump, but I do believe this is a group
that's going to stay hungry into summer
and into next year, and we're going to
compete. … We're going to compete at
the game's highest level for years to
come."
■
WOMEN'S TENNIS Penn State head
coach Chris Cagle stepped down in May
to pursue other professional opportuni-
ties in tennis. Cagle spent ;ve full sea-
sons at the helm of the women's tennis
program and a total of
eight years at Penn
State, including three
as an assistant with
the men's tennis team.
A national search for
Penn State's 11th
women's tennis head
coach is under way.
"We are very appre-
ciative of the impact Chris Cagle has
made on our student-athletes," athletic
director Sandy Barbour said. "Chris has
led our women's tennis program with
integrity, high character and a positive
attitude throughout his tenure at Penn
State."
In announcing his departure, Cagle
said he was motivated by family consid-
erations. "I have made the very di