Blue White Illustrated

arrived. With their regular season wind- ing down, the Lions are guaranteed a winning record. And when the CHA tour- nament takes place March 4-6 at Erie In- surance Arena in Erie, Pa., they will be among the favorites. A few days before the campaign began in November, Kampersal noted that Col- lege Hockey America was just hoping its teams would be able to play 20 regular- season conference games. Everything had been in flux up to that point, including the season's start date, and the continual uncertainty had taken a toll. "The mental ebbs and flows are real, and the players have endured that," Kampersal said. "But they're ready to play hockey." They were indeed. Better than Penn State had ever played before, in fact. ■ The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on college ath- letic departments across the country, with even some schools in the Big Ten opting to cut sports in order to help offset their projected losses. Iowa has cut men's gymnastics, men's tennis, and men's swimming and diving, while Minnesota is discontinuing its men's gymnastics, men's tennis and men's track and field teams. At Penn State, school officials ini- tially estimated that the athletic department's shortfall would be as much as $100 million for the current fiscal year. But that estimated loss has since been re- vised downward to $20-$25 million, athletic director Sandy Barbour said, and she added that Penn State has no intention of cutting any of its 31 var- sity sports programs to help balance its books. "Some around us have elected to cut programs. That's not something I'm interested in. It's not something I'm looking at," Barbour said during a conference call with reporters on Jan. 26. "We've got a very proud tradition of and legacy of a large, robust pro- gram. That's not something that we're looking at." Barbour said that several factors, including community and fan sup- port, as well as donations to multiple fundraising campaigns, have helped offset the losses. Those contribu- tions, coupled with department- wide salary cuts and administrators' willingness to dip into reserves origi- nally earmarked for facilities projects, have made a big difference. "We've done everything we can to make sure that we get access to as much of our revenues as we can. We've not accessed ticket revenue and won't in this fiscal year. We have ac- cess to our television revenue, which has been huge," she said. "And then on the expense side, there have been a lot of sacrifices. I referred before to both individual and organizational sacrifices. Our employees have taken pay cuts. We've had a small number of furloughs. We've held positions open. We've reduced our expenses by some- where north of $25 million. "So you add all that up, and you use our reserves, which we were fortu- nate to have. We were storing those away to do something else with, but we're fortunate to have them. And I think our number is going to come in somewhere between $20 and $25 mil- lion, so that's a big advancement from looking at $90 to $100 million. It still exacts some pain, but not what $90 million would." While the athletic department's overall financial outlook is better than the initial projections suggested it would be at this point, Barbour de- scribed Penn State's facilities master plan as taking "a step back" due to the pandemic. Announced in 2017, the plan featured a new headquarters for the department, as well as im- provements to a range of facilities throughout campus, including Beaver Stadium. It was to be completed in phases over a 20-year period as fund- ing was secured, but those projects are in limbo as the university grapples with the long-term implications of the pandemic. –NATE BAUER BARBOUR A D M I N I ST R AT I O N Barbour: Penn State 'not interested' in cutting sports to balance books The Penn State women's volleyball team got its delayed season under way with a 3- 1 victory over Illinois on Feb. 6 at Rec Hall. The victory was the 1,300th for Russ Rose, whose 42nd season as the Nittany Lions' head coach was pushed back due to COVID-19. Penn State had been sched- uled to open its winter/spring season Jan. 22-23 with a series at Michigan, but those two matches were postponed, as were two against Ohio State. The Nittany Lions were missing multi- ple starters against Illinois but were able to get the win with a balanced attack. They hit .306 as a team, including 11 kills on .381 hitting by redshirt sophomore Anastasiya Kudryashova, a transfer play- ing her :rst match for Penn State. PSU completed the sweep the following night with a 3-2 victory over the Illini, but it dropped a pair of matches to Min- nesota, 3-1 and 3-2, the following week- end in its :rst road trip of the season. Other fall sports teams that are getting started in February include the men's and women's soccer and field hockey squads. ■ WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL Rose gets milestone win to open Lions' season

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