Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1547542
W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 2nd The Penn State field hockey team earned the program's second victory over a No. 1-ranked op- ponent when it shut out visiting Northwestern 2-0 on Oct. 30. Junior goalkeeper Aby Deverka made 7 saves for the 14th- ranked Nittany Lions, whose previous win over a top-ranked foe came in 2002 when they defeated Old Dominion 3-2. 5 Sacks by redshirt junior linebacker Tony Rojas through the Penn State football team's first nine games. Rojas, who was named a first-team Midseason All-American by On3, was responsible for nearly half of the Nittany Lions' team total. Prior to their game against Minnesota on Nov. 14, the Lions' 11 total sacks were tied for 119th out of 138 teams in the FBS. 7 Big Ten victories by the Penn State women's soccer team in the regular season. The Nittany Lions headed into the conference tournament sporting a 9-3-5 overall record and 7-2-3 mark in league play. It was the team's highest Big Ten win total since it went 9-1-1 during the COVID-delayed 2020 season, which was played in the spring of 2021. 43:27 Penn State's time of possession in its 31-17 victory over visiting Purdue on Oct. 31. It was the first time the Nittany Lions compiled more than 40 minutes of possession time in a game since holding the ball for 45 minutes, 27 seconds in a 31-0 victory over Iowa in 2023. 46 Total kills by senior right- side hitter KENNEDY MARTIN in back-to-back 3-1 victories by the Penn State women's volleyball team over No. 10 Oregon and No. 18 Indiana in late October. Martin was named Division I National Player of the Week by the American Volley- ball Coaches Association for her efforts against the Ducks and Hoosiers, the fourth time in her career she's won the AVCA's weekly honor. 97 Consecutive games in which Penn State didn't surrender a special teams touchdown. The streak, which began in 2019, came to an end when Purdue's Jalil Hall returned a blocked punt 31 yards for a score in the second quarter on Oct. 31. The Boilermakers' punt block was the first allowed by Penn State since Iowa smothered a Blake Gillikin attempt in a 30-24 loss to PSU in 2018. 125 Points compiled by athletes affiliated with Penn State and the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club at the Senior World Championships Oct. 24-Nov. 1 in Astana, Ka- zakhstan. All six of the Penn State/NLWC wrestlers medaled, a list highlighted by Levi Haines' first-place finish at 79 ki- lograms. Current PSU sophomore Marcus Blaze captured the bronze medal at 61 kg, while program alums Roman Bravo- Young (57 kg) and Zain Retherford (70 kg) finished second and third, respectively. Two NLWC athletes who didn't at- tend Penn State — Kyle Snyder (97 kg) and Kyle Dake (86 kg) — both won gold. Bravo-Young was competing for Mexico, while the other five wrestlers represented the United States, which won the tour- nament with 194 points. If the Penn State/NLWC wrestlers had competed as their own nation, their 125 points would have placed fourth behind the U.S., Russia and Iran. 1,500 All-time victories by the PSU women's vol- leyball team following its 3-1 win over Ohio State on Oct. 29 at Rec Hall. The Nittany Lions became only the second Division I team to reach the 1,500-win threshold, joining Big Ten rival Nebraska, which had 1,548 victories heading into its clash with Illinois on Nov. 12. Penn State's varsity women's volleyball program was launched in 1976 under the guidance of men's coach Tom Tait. Its first match was a two-set tie with Kean College. Since then, the Nittany Lions have gone on to compile a 1,503-309-4 all- time record, including eight national championships. By The Numbers BRANDON COLLICA/PENN STATE ATHLETICS D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 6 17