Blue White Illustrated

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL Lady Lions fall to Illini as skid continues Kamaria McDaniel scored 23 points, surpassing 20 points for the 10th time this season, but it wasn't enough to prevent Penn State from dropping its ninth in a row, as Illinois held o< the host Lady Lions, 70-66, on Feb. 9. McDaniel, the Big Ten's leading scorer at 19.9 points per game, reached double ;gures for the 23rd time in 24 games, and Shay Hagans added a career-high 14 points, but Penn State slipped to 7-17 overall and 1-12 in league play. "We have to keep growing, we have to keep teaching, we have to keep get- ting better," coach Carolyn Kieger said. "We show moments and we show spurts, but we're not there yet." ■ minute and then Coach will come and everyone will calm down, breathe be- cause we know we've got to punch back. I think Coach is definitely our leader. That's his favorite saying, body language. Present yourself like you're a winner at all times." The Lions have been winning lately, but success comes with its own set of challenges, the biggest of which is to keep things going in the right direction. After pulling off a rousing victory over Iowa at the Palestra in Philadelphia on Jan. 4, the Lions lost three in a row be- fore rebounding at home vs. Ohio State. The game against the Buckeyes touched off a six-game winning streak, but there's a lot of season left to play and more tests ahead. "How do we handle successes? We had successes early and we didn't han- dle it real well after Iowa," Chambers said following the Ohio State game. "You go through a couple of speed bumps and now you're back with [what] I thought was a sound victory. We have to now learn how to handle short-term successes and extend them to everyday consistency." –N.B. A national champion heavyweight wrestler suffers a season-ending in- jury and is replaced in the lineup by a freshman who, in three of his first five bouts, ends up with the outcome of the match resting on his hefty shoulders. Welcome to Penn State wrestling, Seth Nevills. The four-time California state champion arrived at Penn State in 2019 with big- time credentials and grayshirted while his brother Nick occupied the heavyweight spot. But Anthony Cassar opted to move to heavyweight from 197 pounds, then beat out Nick and won an NCAA title. Cassar returned this season, and Seth Nevills planned on redshirting. But when Cassar suffered a sea- son-ending shoulder injury at the U.S. Senior Nationals in De- cember, Seth quickly went from redshirt status to a blue-and-white-clad starter. And in those matches where he was the deciding factor, well, two out of three ain't bad, as the song says. His first ap- pearance in the individual heavyweight rankings came at No. 15. Nevills clinched Penn State's 22-16 vic- tory over Illinois on Jan. 10; he had to win for the Nittany Lions to defeat Nebraska, 20-18, on Jan. 24; and he came up short in an attempt to give Penn State a win over Iowa on Jan. 31. "I just love wrestling, so whether it comes down to me or the dual is already clinched, it's just another match, so that's how I like to think about it," Nevills said. He's big at 260 pounds, he's agile on his feet and he's strong in the top position when a riding time point might come in handy. Against Iowa's third-ranked Tony Cas- sioppi, he ran into a redshirt freshman who was bigger, slightly more agile and equally good on top. That resulted in a 7- 0 loss for Nevills and a 19-17 loss for Penn State. And just to get used to Big Ten challenges, one of his next bouts, on Feb. 9, was against No. 1 Gable Steveson of Minnesota. Steveson won by major deci- sion, 13-5, but the Lions cruised to a 31- 10 road victory. "Everybody at this point in Big Ten [competition] is going to be good," Nevills said. "Everybody is going to be able to take shots, get off the bottom, ride on top, so I have to go out there and wrestle my best match. You just know everybody can do all the high-level stuff, so you just try to sharpen up your skills to combat that." Penn State coach Cael Sanderson has long been aware of Nevills' skills, having cultivated a relationship with Seth while Nick was a member of the Nittany Lions' roster. "You watch him wrestle and he can do some really incredible things," Sanderson said. "He's got great shots and he's tough on top. He's won a couple matches that we needed him to win for the dual meet. I think every time he competes, he seems to be a little bit more loose and excited to be out there. We'll see what he can do. I think he can compete with just about anybody, just like anybody else if you just be yourself." Nevills is the youngest of four wrestling-crazy brothers. Zach competed for Stanford, Nick for Penn State and A.J. for Fresno State after a year spent grayshirting with the Nittany Lions. "My brothers started in elementary school and we all started," Seth Nevills said. "My dad played basketball, my mom did many sports in college, so wrestling wasn't in their childhood. When we started it, they had to figure everything | WARM WELCOME Freshman heavyweight Seth Nevills receives a baptism of fire W R E S T L I N G NEVILLS

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