Blue White Illustrated

season. After going a combined 11-55-5 in their first two seasons of varsity com- petition, coach Josh Brandwene's squad went 17-16-4 this year (9-9-2 in the College Hockey America conference) and reached the semifinals of the league tour- nament. The Nittany Lions had struggled in the final weeks of the regular season, dropping their last five games. But they regained their stride in the tournament, earning two victories over visiting Lindenwood, 1-0 and 3-1, in a best-of-three series to open postseason play. They were the first CHA tourney wins in the program's short history, and they felt, in the words of captain Shan- non Yoxheimer, "really awesome." "It's what we've been working for," said Yoxheimer, a junior forward from Jackson, Mich., after scoring the only goal of the opener on a first-period power play. "It shows that we're getting so much better every single year, and it's a big step for the program." The Lions' season ended March 6 with a 2-0 loss to Syracuse in the CHA semifinal round. But heading into that game, they had already made the biggest improvement of any team in Division I, winning 13 more games than they did in 2013-14. ■ FENCING Nittany Lions prepare for NCAA title defense Eleven Penn State fencers qualified for the NCAA championships, dominating much of the competition at the Mid-At- lantic/Southern Regional March 7 in Durham, N.C. The Nittany Lions received standout performances from sophomore Oskar Tang (men's epee) and freshmen Andrew Mackiewicz (men's saber) and Karen Chang (women's saber). Also among the qualifiers was junior Kaito Streets, who won the NCAA men's saber champi- onship last year, helping lift Penn State to the team title. The Lions will be looking to capture their 14th national title when they com- pete at NCAAs March 19-22 at Ohio State. MEN'S GYMNASTICS Penn State second at Puerto Rico meet Despite posting five individual event winners, No. 3 Penn State finished sec- ond (425.100) to No. 5 Michigan (431.000) March 6 at the Puerto Rico Gymnastics Challenge. As a team, the Nittany Lions won the still rings (72.950) and the vault (72.500) while finishing second in the other four events. Freshman Thad Lawson contin- ued his success in the floor exercise, as he tied for first (15.400). Lawson now has claimed four floor exercise titles in 2015. "It was a really nice performance by Thad Lawson again, but we have to find some fight here towards the end of the season and get into championship form, because we are not in it right now," head coach Randy Jepson said. WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS Penn State strong in victory at WVU Penn State amassed the 11th-highest score in program history en route to a 196.750-195.900 victory over West Vir- ginia March 8 at the WVU Coliseum. Senior Krystal Welsh (uneven bars) and sophomore Emma Sibson (floor exercise) both posted scores of 9.950 to enter the top 10 in Penn State history. The team score is the fourth-highest road score in PSU history. The Nittany Lions posted the top team score on all four events for the seventh time this sea- son, including a season-best 49.300 on the uneven bars. "It was a good showing on the road to- day with a 196.750," head coach Jeff Thompson said. "We had a fall on uneven bars and vault, which was kind of odd for us, but we were able to recover on both events. We also had our troubles on floor exercise and balance beam. It wasn't a perfect day by any means, but it was a re- ally great team effort today on the road." For the fourth time this season, fresh- man Briannah Tsang claimed the all- around title, as she placed among the top three finishers on each event. BASEBALL Nittany Lions romp to first win of season After dropping its first eight games of the season, Penn State broke through in a big way, routing Charleston Southern, 18-6, March 8 in Charleston, S.C. Senior outfielder Aaron Novak went 4 for 5 with two home runs and eight RBIs for the Nittany Lions. Freshman reliever Marko Boricich got the win for the Lions, who were playing the ninth of 15 consecutive road games to open the season. ■ some of the more restless fans seem to want, is not the solution. You can't keep starting over and over and over. This is Penn State, still in the middle of nowhere when compared to Big Ten ri- vals and other schools. Filling the Bryce Jordan Center on a midweek evening in the dead of winter is not impossible, but I'm not sure Penn State can do it consis- tently, unlike its competitors, who are located in or near big population cen- ters. Maybe Penn State basketball is not lost. Not squandered or wasted. Maybe no matter what the athletic depart- ment and coaches do, we just can't hack it. Maybe we're just the Indiana of football. ■ PRATO CONTINUED FROM PAGE 53 N O T E B O O K

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