Blue White Illustrated

M att Bersano has spent all of 48 hours on Penn State's campus to date, and during his short stay this past February, he experienced central Penn- sylvania at its frigid worst. But Bersano, an Arizona native who for the past four years has resided in the rainy but otherwise quite pleasant climes of western Oregon, was not deterred by the harsh weather. Far from it. "Even though it was 18 degrees and snowing the whole time I was there, I saw everything I needed to see," he said. One of the top senior goalkeepers in the country, Bersano is headed to Penn State this summer as a graduate transfer. A three-year starter at Oregon State, he is set to help the Nittany Lions overcome the loss of All-Big Ten goalkeeper Andrew Wolverton. And if the Lions are getting a big li;, so too is Bersano, a Major League Soccer hopeful who is looking to use his senior college season to enhance an already impressive resume. "Like I told Coach [Bob] Warming, we're going to get out of it what we can do to- gether," said Bersano, who is playing this summer for Lane United, a Premier De- velopment League team based in Eugene, Ore. "If the team does well, it'll go well for me. And if I don't bring it, then some- one else is going to have to do it. "I would love to make it to the dra;, but I can't do it alone, and the team can't win a title without me, so we're all in this to- gether." Bersano is coming o9 three standout sea- sons at Oregon State. A;er redshirting as a true freshman in 2011, he went on to start 54 games, winning All-Pac-12 recognition following his sophomore and junior years. Last fall, he amassed 8ve shutouts, the last one coming in a 1-0 victory over Denver in the 8rst round of the NCAA tournament. It was the team's 8rst appearance in the national tourney since 2003. Although he could have stayed in Cor- vallis for one more year, Bersano had never intended to use his 8nal season of eligibility with the Beavers. His plan had been to graduate early and then, hopefully, pursue his professional ambitions. But the team that owned his MLS rights, Real Salt Lake, already had three goal- keepers and wanted to sign him to its United Soccer League a:liate, Real Mon- archs SLC. Bersano wasn't interested, so he began exploring his college options. He knew that by turning down the contract o9er, he would no longer be bound to Salt Lake and would instead be dra;-eligible in 2016. He just needed to 8nd the right college to attend in the meantime. Two schools he began looking at im- mediately were Penn State and Indiana. He had a friend who coached goalkeepers for the Hoosiers, and Oregon State had played Indiana in 2012, so he was ac- quainted with the program. But one of his former coaches had connections with Penn State's sta9, and he knew that the Nittany Lions had a tradition of strong goalkeeping. He also knew that with Wolverton gone – the four-year starter was taken by the Los Angeles Galaxy in the fourth round of the MLS Su- perDra; this past Jan- uary – he would have an opportunity to step into a starting role. That was crucial. "I only have one sea- son, and you don't want to get into an environ- ment where every single day you're 8ghting to see whether you're play- ing or not," he said. "You want competition, ob- viously, but you also don't want to be the lower guy in a situation when you only have 8ve months to play. So that was one of the things we were looking at: which teams had senior goal- keepers, which teams were going to be in need of someone coming in, because they need me as much as I need them to go forward." Bersano, who is set to enroll in the School of International A9airs, will be looking to help Penn State claim the Big Ten regu- lar-season championship that it last won in 2013, and also to go as deep as possible into the postseason. "It's all about seeing what we can do," he said. "This team is talented. I know, even before getting there, that they're talented. I just want to see how I can help." ■ MEN'S SOCCER | Goalkeeper Matt Bersano prepares to head east WIN-WIN SCENARIO BUSY SUMMER Bersano is playing in the Premier Devel- opment League be- fore heading to PSU later this year. Photo courtesy of Lane United FC

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