Blue White Illustrated

of game and whoever he's playing with is awesome. It really is." From afar, Sturtz is admiring his old mentee, too. With half a season left, Sucese will have plenty of time to pad a record that has changed hands twice since 2017 – and Sturtz is counting on his old hotel room- mate to make that happen. "I'm obviously really happy to see him beat it, and hopefully he can set the bar pretty high so we can keep it in our old road roommate combo," Sturtz said. "Obviously, I'm super proud of my ac- complishment, and there are some guys who I passed along the way who are in- credible hockey players," Sucese said, "and the one who was at the top was one of my mentors and one of my best friends." ■ Penn State's 2019 season ended the way its 2018 season did, with a loss to Stanford at Maples Pavilion. Despite getting o9 to a fast start in the 8rst set, the Nittany Lions were swept by the Cardi- nal, 25-22, 25-15, 25- 17, on Dec. 14. They had earned their spot in the NCAA regional 8nal by defeating Princeton, Towson and Cincinnati in the tournament's 8rst three rounds. The Nittany Lions wrapped up their season at 27-6 after competing in the NCAA tournament for the 39th consecutive year. PSU and Stanford are the only programs to compete in every NCAA tourna- ment, while Russ Rose is the only coach to lead a team in all 39 tourna- ments. The momentum of the match swung early. Penn State got out to a 20-14 lead in the 8rst set before Stanford climbed back with a 4-0 run. Just a few points later, the Cardinal started a 6-0 run that 8nished o9 the set and gave it an early lead. The Nittany Lions hit .371 in the opening set, including four kills on four swings by Tori Gorrell, but the Cardinal hit .486. Stanford All-Amer- ican Kathryn Plummer had nine kills on .533 hitting. Gorrell and Serena Gray represented Penn State on the Stanford Regional All-Tournament team. Senior Kendall White 8nished up an illustrious Penn State career and will leave as one of the best liberos in pro- gram history. She registered 11 digs and will graduate as the team's career leader with 1,994. The Lions hit .347, including .414 in the 8nal set. Jonni Parker posted 10 kills, while Kaitlyn Hord added six. Gabby Blossom contributed 33 assists and six digs. At the Stanford Regional, Penn State took on two of the best players in the nation – Cincinnati's Jordan Thompson and Stanford's Plummer – on consecutive nights. Plummer, a two-time NCAA Player of the Year, 8nished with 24 kills on .512 hitting and added 8ve digs. Madeleine Gates hit .733 with 11 kills, and Holly Camp- bell contributed eight kills on .727 hitting. The Cardinal hit .525 as a team. Penn State had advanced to the re- gional 8nal with a 3-2 victory over Cincinnati the night before. Thomp- son, a national Player of the Year con- tender who had totaled 50 kills in a single match earlier in the season, lived up to her billing, totaling 30 kills on 71 swings. But a:er dropping two of the 8rst three sets, Penn State rallied. The Lions swung momentum their way with a dominant 25-12 victory in set four. They never trailed in that set and didn't trail again in the 8:h a:er tying the match at 1-1. Two of the team's 8nal three points of the match came on kills by Parker. The victory set up a rematch with Stanford. The Cardinal had defeated Penn State, 3-1, in the regional 8nals last season. It had also won a regular- season match in Rec Hall this past September, 3-1. The regional 8nal featured the top two program in the nation as far as national titles won. Stanford ranks 8rst with eight, while Penn State has won seven. All seven of the Lions' ti- tles were won during Rose's 41 sea- sons with the team. He will enter the 2020 season with 1,299 career wins, 104 of which have come in the NCAA tournament. ■ WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL Cardinal sweeps PSU in regional final GORRELL MEN'S ICE HOCKEY Nittany Lions split series at Notre Dame An early overturned goal and strong goaltending from Cale Mor- ris set the tone on Dec. 14, as No. 7 Penn State dropped a 3-0 decision to No. 15 Notre Dame in South Bend. Morris stopped 37 shots to earn his 8rst shutout of the season. The Lions outshot Notre Dame 13-1 in the third period and played the last six minutes of the game with an empty net but still couldn't score on the senior goaltender. Penn State dropped to 13-6-0 and 8-4-0-0 in the Big Ten, while the Irish snapped a seven-game winless streak and improved to 9-7-2 over- all and 5-3-2-1 in conference action. The Nittany Lions, who used a three-goal third period to defeat Notre Dame, 4-2, in the series opener the night before, remained 8ve points up on Ohio State and Michigan State in the Big Ten standings heading into the holiday break. ■ ■ P

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