Penn State Sports Magazine
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J U N E / J U L Y 2 0 2 3 41 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M team, the Lions were 19th with a 21.13- goal average. Meanwhile, Fracyon ranked sixth na- tionally with an average of 14.0 saves per game and fourth with a .572 save percent- age. Those players all came up big for Penn State against the Black Knights, who were surprise entrants in the quarterfi- nals after stunning defending champion Maryland in the first round. Early in the game, Penn State had trailed 2-0, and coach Jeff Tambroni ex- plained that he thought his team was "playing a little rushed, a little out of tempo." Despite their sluggish start, how- ever, the Lions kept the faith that they would prevail, just as they had so often throughout their season. Winkoff supplied what would turn out to be the winning goal when he scored unassisted to give the Lions a 10-7 lead with 7:38 left. That they were able to keep their composure even as Army was at- tempting a furious comeback was hardly surprising. "One thing I will say about this team," Tambroni told reporters afterward, "is that every time there's been a challenging moment, they have responded." ■ Baseball, Women's Golf Coaches Announce Departures Two Penn State head coaches announced in May that they were stepping down. Denise St. Pierre has retired after 31 years in charge of the Nittany Lion women's golf program, while Rob Cooper an- nounced just before the final weekend of the base- ball season that he was resigning after 10 seasons managing the team. St. Pierre, a 1983 Penn State graduate, had been coaching at her alma mater since 1985, first as an assistant with the men's and women's teams un- der Mary Kennedy-Zierke and later as head coach of the women's squad. Her teams won 17 Nittany Lion Invitational titles and advanced to the NCAA Regionals four times. "Denise has given more than 40 years of her life to Penn State … and she is a staple of the Happy Valley community," athletics director Patrick Kraft said in a prepared statement. "I have been fortu- nate enough to inherit a group of coaches at Penn State who have shown their pride and dedication to the university, and Denise exemplifies what it means to lead the Blue and White." Cooper went 195-270 in his tenure at Penn State and 70-158 in Big Ten play. In 2022, the Nittany Li- ons made the Big Ten Tournament for the first time since 2012, but they went 25-25 this year, includ- ing a 7-16 mark in Big Ten competition. "While I am disappointed that I wasn't able to get the baseball program the success it deserves, I am excited about the vision that Dr. Kraft has for Penn State Athletics, the student-athletes and the baseball program," Cooper said in a prepared statement. "Penn State baseball is in good health." Another PSU coach, Wes Glon, announced in April that he was stepping down after nine seasons in charge of the men's and women's fencing teams and 37 seasons as a member of the staff. MEN'S VOLLEYBALL: Penn State rallied back from a two-set deficit to even its NCAA semifinal match against Hawai'i but wasn't able to complete the comeback bid. The second-ranked Rainbow Warriors held off PSU 15-10 in the decisive fifth set and advanced to the championship match with a 3-2 victory May 6 in Fairfax, Va. Graduate outside hitter Brett Wildman and super senior opposite hitter Cal Fisher combined for 27 kills, but they weren't able to offset a huge night by Hawai'i opposite hitter Dimitrios Mouchl- ias, who finished with 25 kills. The Nittany Lions had opened the tournament two nights earlier with a 3-1 win over Ohio State in the quarterfinal round. Fisher had 18 kills and a career-high 7 blocks against the Buckeyes. Penn State ended its season with a 27-4 record and finished third in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll. WOMEN'S LACROSSE: Junior midfielder Kristin O'Neill tallied her ninth hat trick of the season, but it wasn't enough to stave off a 12-8 loss to 10th- ranked Stony Brook in the first round of the NCAA Tournament May 12 in Baltimore. O'Neill led the Nittany Lions with 51 goals on the season, ranking fourth in the Big Ten with an aver- age of 2.83 goals per game. Penn State finished its season at 11-7 and 3-3 in Big Ten play. BASEBALL: Penn State wrapped up its season with a 7-4 loss to visiting Maryland on May 20. The Nittany Lions held a 4-2 lead against the 20th- ranked Terrapins but gave up 2 runs in the sixth and 3 in the eighth and dropped their final game under coach Rob Cooper, who announced his res- ignation the previous day. The Nittany Lions finished the season 25-25 overall and 7-16 in Big Ten play. Despite dropping the finale of their three-game series against the Terps, they finished with their winningest home record since 2016, going 15-6 at Medlar Field. SOFTBALL: Penn State's season ended with a 5-4 loss to Indiana in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament on May 11 at Champaign, Ill. Super senior center fielder Lilia Crouthamel had 2 triples for PSU, but the Hoosiers prevailed on Sarah Stone's walk-off home run off super senior pitcher Kylee Lingenfelter in the ninth inning. Penn State finished with a 31-16 record and an 11-11 mark in conference play. The Nittany Lions had reached the quarterfinals with a 3-2 win over Michigan in their tournament opener. MEN'S GYMNASTICS: Sophomore Josh Karnes (82.964) and junior Matt Cormier (81.864) finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the all-around, and Penn State came in sixth in the team race at the NCAA Championships, which took place April 14- 15 at Rec Hall. The Nittany Lions emerged from the preliminary round in second place but "just weren't sharp enough to pull off a trophy for the team tonight," coach Randy Jepson said. "That doesn't take anything away from their efforts and their accom- plishments this whole season, and I couldn't be more proud." WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS: Freshman Ava Pie- drahita put together a 9.875 score on the vault, finishing in sixth place and earning second-team All-America honors at the NCAA Championships on April 13 at Fort Worth, Texas. Piedrahita became Penn State's first postseason All-American since Sharaya Musser in 2013. TRACK AND FIELD: The Penn State men's and women's teams both finished in the top half of the standings at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships May 13-14 at Bloomington, Ind. The Nittany Lion women came in fifth, thanks in large part to a first-place showing by junior Faith DeMars in the 5,000-meter race. DeMars finished in 16:11.81 to claim the first outdoor 5,000-meter title ever by a Penn State woman and the first by any Nittany Lion runner since Bob Hamer in 1994. The Nittany Lion women amassed 63 team points, while the men totaled 54 points to place sixth. It was the best showing by the men's team at the Big Ten outdoor meet since 2018. — Matt Herb O L Y M P I C S P O R T S N O T E B O O K Denise St. Pierre Rob Cooper