Blue White Illustrated

one of the great players ever to suit up for the Lady Lions. "She's had one of the most storied and acclaimed careers in the history of Penn State," Washington said. "When you talk about the greats who have played here, Maggie Lucas's name will be on that list. She'll be in the conversation. "Her impact on our program has been phenomenal. It began before she even set foot on this campus. When she verbally committed to Penn State, that helped other people who wanted to play with her decide to come to Penn State as well. So her impact on this program has really been incredible." The seniors were driven by memories of their previous second-round game at the BJC, a heartbreaking last-second loss to DePaul in 2011 that brought an end to Lucas's stellar debut season. "I've kept that with me for a long time," she said. "I'm just so happy that we were able to give this [victory] to our school and to the fans here and that we were able to share it with everybody. It just feels so good." The Lady Lions carried that momentum into their game against second-seeded Stanford 3ve days later. Despite having to travel to Palo Alto, where the Cardinal hadn't lost all season, Penn State hung tough through the 3rst 10 minutes, taking a four-point lead, 23-19, on a jumper by Lucas with 9 minutes, 36 seconds to play in the half. And then everything came apart. Stanford outscored Penn State 25- 7 to end the 3rst half, and a6er building a 14-point lead at the break, it maintained that double-digit edge for the duration of the game. Stanford did a lot of impressive things against Penn State, but perhaps the most impressive thing it did was to sti4e Lucas. In her 3nal college game, she went 3 of 14 from the 4oor and 0 of 5 from 3-point range and 3nished with six points. "They did an outstanding job on her," Washington said. "She didn't get many clean, open looks. She put the ball on the 4oor. … They just made her take tough shots all night." The next stop for Lucas is most likely the WNBA. The latest mock dra6 on dra6- site.com has her going fourth overall to the New York Liberty. The site also has Edwards going in the third round (31st overall) to the Atlanta Dream. And what's next for Penn State, which 3nished its season at 24-8? Another makeover. As was the case last year, when three senior starters graduated, the Lady Lions will need to retool. Lucas, Edwards, East and Taylor accounted for 56.5 points and 20.5 rebounds per game this past sea- son, so there's a big void to 3ll. The highly regarded freshman class that Washington welcomed this season will have to assert itself next year. And the Lady Lions will be eager for the on-court debuts of two recent arrivals who didn't see action in their 3rst season on campus: Sierra Moore and Lindsey Spann. Moore, a small for- ward, sat out following her transfer from Duke and will have three seasons of eli- gibility remaining; Spann, a point guard, took a medical redshirt a6er injuring her knee last summer and has her whole col- lege career ahead of her. But no matter how well those players adapt to their roles as starters and team leaders, Penn State will miss this senior class. Lucas, East and Edwards arrived in 2010, and Taylor joined them the following year, transferring from Maryland in 2011 and taking the court for Penn State in 2012 a6er sitting out a season. The Lady Lions went 101-31 during the past four seasons – the second-best four-year record in school history – won three Big Ten regular-season titles and twice reached the Sweet 16. Lucas spearheaded that charge back to the top of the Big Ten. She 3nished her career as the program's second-leading all-time scorer with 2,510 points, and she ranks in the top 10 in 16 other categories as well. A two-time Big Ten Player of the Year, she's the fourth-leading scorer in league history and ranks 3rst in 3-point 3eld goals and free throw percentage. Washington said during the postseason that it was di5cult to put Lucas's accom- plishments into perspective. "I've just been blessed and fortunate to have had the opportunity to coach her over the past four years," she said. "It's been an unbe- lievable experience." ■ Haverbeck to be honored by WBCA The late Mary Jo Haverbeck, former Penn State associate sports information director, has been named the winner of the 2014 Women's Basketball Coach- es Association's Mel Greenberg Media Award. Named after Mel Greenberg, the Philadelphia Inquirer sports- writer who founded the Associ- ated Press Top 25 women's bas- ketball poll, the WBCA's Mel Greenberg Media Award is pre- sented annually to a member of the media who has best displayed a commitment to women's bas- ketball and to advancing the role of the media in the women's game. Selected by past recipients of the award, the candidate must have had a positive impact on the growth and national or regional exposure of the sport, been in- volved in the media exposure of women's basketball for a mini- mum of five years and should be a media ambassador for the women's game. "Mary Jo worked relentlessly promoting the game of women's basketball," WBCA CEO Beth Bass said. "Her excitement and passion for the game could be seen in her life's work." Haverbeck, a frequent contrib- utor to Blue White Illustrated fol- lowing her retirment from Penn State, earned several lifetime achievement honors from the College Sports Information Di- rectors of America. She will be formally recognized during the WBCA Awards Show, which is set to take place April 7 in Nashville. A s Guy Gadowsky concluded the final news conference of Penn State's sea- son, he mentioned a statistic from earlier in his coaching career, long before he arrived in University Park, to illustrate the team's progress. He had been hired by Alaska – his first coaching job in the NCAA – in the hope that he would be able to develop the Nanooks into the kind of team that could compete against elite opponents such as Michigan. Prior to his arrival, Alaska had gone 0-21-1 against the Wolverines. When he was hired by Penn State, Gad- owsky's assignment was much the same. And if Michigan can be used as a yardstick, things are going pretty well. The Nittany Lions are already 3-2 against the traditional college hockey power. "For us to be 3-2 against Michigan now – I'm very happy with where we are in the program," Gadowsky said. The Nittany Lions finished their second season of varsity competition with an 8- 26-2 record and a 3-16-1-0 mark in Big Ten play. They played seven of the 16 teams that qualified for the NCAA tour- nament and hosted all four No. 1 seeds at Pegula Ice Arena. Their victories included a double-over- time win over the Wolverines in the quar- terfinal round of the Big Ten tournament March 20 in Saint Paul, Minn., as well as 4-0 and 5-4 wins over Michigan during the regular season. The 4-0 shutout at the Pegula Arena on Feb. 8 was Penn State's first-ever Big Ten Conference vic- tory. Their other Big Ten win was a 3-2 decision against Ohio State to conclude the regular season on March 15. Sophomore goalie Matthew Skoff was in net for all eight of Penn State's victories. After compiling a 2.95 goals-against av- erage and a .906 save percentage, Skoff is the No. 1 goalie on Penn State's squad heading into next season, Gadowsky said. The 2013-14 season was a big year for Skoff, and as Gadowsky noted, he had to work hard for the opportunity. "It certainly wasn't given to him. He had to earn every bit. He did that in both performance in games and performance in practice." Because the program is still in its infancy, there were a lot of firsts this season: the first night in Pegula Ice Arena, the first Big Ten game, first Big Ten win, first Big Ten tournament and first Big Ten tourney win. For all the milestones, however, Gad- owsky said it will be nice to focus more intently on the on-ice aspects of the pro- gram next season. "I'm looking forward to being about hockey from the start and to not have a lot of other things diverting our attention," he said. "It makes my job easier – getting the team on the same page, how you get players and the system to work all together in one way." Skoff said the key will be to build on the successes of the past season. "The biggest thing for us as a team is to remember all the lessons that we learned this year and how good we can play when we all play together," he said. Gadowsky said the most remarkable in- dividual stat on the team is David Glen's plus-3 for the season. "We have excellent hockey players who are minus-20, and he is the only plus player on our team," Gad- owsky said. "We put him out specifically against teams' most explosive offensive players and he plays in the worst situations. He really should be one of the lowest plus- minus players on the team, and somehow he is the only plus player. [It's an] incredible statistic." Making that figure even more impressive is the fact that Glen missed three games due to his involvement in a bone marrow transplant procedure. Looking ahead, many Nittany Lion play- ers will be staying in the State College area during the summer, including Skoff, who will be taking classes during both summer sessions, and Glen, who will be working out both on campus and back home in Edmonton, Alberta. "A bunch of guys are staying," Skoff said. "It will be good to have group workouts." Penn State graduates only one senior, forward Mike McDonagh. Everyone else is expected to be back, although Gadowsky cautioned that "you never know until the end of the academic year." Skoff said that with so many players returning next season, he's excited about the team's future. "The only way we can go from here is up," he said. ■ MOVING FORWARD Late-season success has Nittany Lions feeling optimistic about future | I C E H O C K E Y thediningroom@psu.edu • 814.865.8590 at Whiskers Upscale. Cuisine. Vegan.

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