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Hammond, who is from Chambersburg, is well aware of PSU's previous starter at this weight and he's been eagerly awaiting his opportunity to take over. "While I was being recruited here, I knew I'd be the guy stepping in a7er [David Taylor], so that was my plan," Hammond said. Then he added, "I don't really feel pressure. I feel like I'm just going out there to be my own person." He prepared this o5-season, however, like all the pressure in the world was on. "I lived up here during the summer and I li7ed three times a week and practiced four or 4ve times a week," Hammond said. "That was really important for me to im- prove. I think spending time in here during the summer gave me the con4dence and allowed me to get some more one-on- one attention." MATT McCUTCHEON WT 184 YR R-Fr. McCutcheon got the start vs. Lehigh a7er a tight battle with redshirt sophomore Wes Phipps for this starting role, and he began his college career with a 10-2 loss to third-ranked Nathaniel Brown. McCutcheon compiled a 14-5 overall record during his redshirt season and also posted a 3-2 record at the famed Southern Scu6e, wrestling unattached. Said Sanderson, "McCutcheon is another guy I'm very con4dent in. He's just a hard- nosed, every-second type of guy. He's go- ing to wrestle 420 seconds and he's going to be tough to compete with because he doesn't slow down. Now that I say that, he better not slow down." In high school, McCutcheon was ranked the No. 49 overall recruit by Intermat.com and he was also a two-time state 4nalist, winning the PIAA title as a junior for Kiski Area. Many of the same traits that helped McCutcheon be successful then continue to shine during his college career. "He's just gritty," Sanderson said of Mc- Cutcheon, a native of Apollo, Pa. "He just wrestles hard. He moves forward all the time. He's very strong and he's just a real good athlete, [but] he's a guy who is a little shorter for his weight class." ■ F or five weeks, Bob Warming watched his team get off to the best start in program history – a history that stretches back more than a century. For the next five weeks, he found him- self trying to pull that team out a tail- spin. You'll pardon the obvious reference, but for the Penn State men's soccer team, 2014 was a tale of two seasons. For Warming, in his fifth year as the Nittany Lions' head coach, a 1-0 loss to Michigan State in the first round of the Big Ten tournament was the chance for a fresh start – a third season, es- sentially, that he hoped might look a lot like the first. "It's been unusual," Warming said in mid-November, a few days after that loss to the Spartans and a few days before the Lions (12-5-1) were due to discover their NCAA tourna- ment fate. (The Penn State women, who clinched their 16th Big Ten regular-season title in late October, opened NCAA play in mid-November with a 4-1 victory over Buffalo.) "We started out on the longest undefeated streak in school history, and then we had sort of an implosion at Maryland. It was about that time that our lack of depth in some positions really started to affect us." To recap: Penn State started the season 10-0-1, the only blemish a double-OT draw at James Madison in which the Lions managed the tie despite losing two men to red cards. A defense led by senior goalkeeper An- drew Wolverton al- lowed just three goals over those first 11 games, and the frontline tandem of sophomore Connor Maloney (the even- tual Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year) and Mikey Minutillo paced a dy- namic attack. Then came a three-game skid: a 4-0 drubbing against Maryland – in a sport V A R S I T Y V I E W S HOT AND COLD For soccer team, it's been a season of streaks | STOPPING POWER Wolverton was a critical part of Penn State's fast start. The senior goalkeeper gave up only three goals in the Nit- tany Lions' first 11 games. Mark Selders/Penn State Athletic Comm.

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