Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1454229
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 13 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M Lions' Season- Opening Visit To Purdue Moved To Sept. 1 Penn State is still set to open its 2022 football campaign at Purdue, but the two Big Ten foes are no longer slated to meet on Sept. 3, the first full Saturday of the college football season. Instead, the matchup pitting the Nittany Lions against the Boilermakers at Ross-Ade Stadium will take place on Thursday, Sept. 1. The Big Ten an- nounced the change on Feb. 10. Kickoff time and television details for the Week 1 clash were not immediately announced. However, it's all but assured that Penn State and Purdue will meet in the evening on national television. According to the 2022 college football schedule compiled by FBSchedules.com, seven games are now slated for Sept. 1. More could be added, but as of mid-February, the marquee games scheduled for that day were Penn State-Purdue and West Virginia at Pitt. In the other games on that day involving Power Five teams, Minnesota will play host to New Mexico State, Wake Forest will welcome VMI, and Arizona State has Northern Arizona coming to town. Penn State leads the all-time series against Purdue 15-3 and has won the past nine meetings. The two teams last met back in 2019, when head coach James Franklin's team scored a 35-7 triumph at home. PSU hasn't visited West Lafayette since 2016, when it pummeled the hosts, 62-24. The Boilermakers last topped the Nittany Lions in 2004, when they snared a 20-13 win in State College. They also beat Penn State a year earlier at home by a 28-14 margin. — Greg Pickel 2022 PENN STATE FOOTBALL SCHEDULE Sept. 1 at Purdue Sept. 10 Ohio Sept. 17 at Auburn Sept. 24 Central Michigan Oct. 1 Northwestern Oct. 8 BYE Oct. 15 at Michigan Oct. 22 Minnesota Oct. 29 Ohio State Nov. 5 at Indiana Nov. 12 Maryland Nov. 19 at Rutgers Nov. 26 Michigan State PENN STATE'S TOP PERFORMERS Leilani Kapinus — Women's Basketball Kapinus flashed her potential in a 71-62 loss at Rut- gers on Feb. 13. The redshirt freshman guard finished with 23 points and 12 rebounds to record the first dou- ble-double of her career and the first by a Penn State freshman since Lauren Ebo had 12 points and 12 re- bounds against Nebraska in March 2018. Kapinus also added five steals. It was the second five-steal game of the season for the Madison, Wis., native, who has averaged 26.5 minutes this season after missing the entire 2020-21 season with a knee injury. Michael Jaroh — Men's Gymnas cs Jaroh was named Big Ten Men's Gymnast of the Week on Feb. 8 after winning a pair of events in Penn State's 408.650-400.850 loss at Nebraska on Feb. 5. The soph- omore all-arounder from Northville, Mich., compiled a 14.35 score on the rings and 13.85 on the high bar to capture first place in both events. His score on the rings was tied for the highest mark in the country this season. Jaroh comes from an athletic family. His father and an uncle were gymnasts in college, while another uncle, Steve Burke, played pro football for the Dallas Cowboys. Allison Johnson — Women's Track and Field Coach John Gondak called it "a very exciting day for Penn State track and field," and Johnson's perfor- mance on the second day of the Music City Challenge in Nashville was the highlight. The freshman from Mount Gilead, Ohio, finished the 800-meter race in 2 minutes, 2.84 seconds on Feb. 12, the best time in school history and the best in the country to that point in the indoor season. Johnson has been spectacular in her first season with the Nittany Lions, having set a school record in the 1,000-meter race in January. She recently became the first freshman in Big Ten track and field history to be named the league's Athlete of the Week three times. Bre Wildman — Men's Volleyball Penn State opened its conference season with a pair of sweeps, and Wildman, a senior outside hitter from Virginia Beach, Va., was one of the main reasons why. He had a team-best nine kills and four blocks in a 3-0 victory over George Mason on Feb. 4 at Rec Hall, and he followed it the next night with a 17-kill performance in Penn State's 3-0 win over George Mason. Wildman, who compiled a .500 hitting percentage in the win over the Patriots, was later named the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association's Offensive Player of the Week, the fourth time in his career that he has been saluted by the conference. — Matt Herb