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WOMEN'S SOCCER PSU prevails in league tournament Coach Erica Walsh called it "a fantas- tic final." That certainly was the case for Penn State, as the top-seeded Nittany Lions shut out third-seeded Rutgers, 2- 0, on Nov. 8 at Jeffrey Field to claim their sixth Big Ten tournament title. "I thought the quality of play was as good as I've seen in any Big Ten match this year," Walsh said. "I'm obviously re- ally proud of the way the team came out. From start to finish, we battled, we kept our composure. I thought we played Penn State soccer on both sides of the ball. The energy was there, the leader- ship was there and it was a really good performance from our team today." Heading into the championship match, Rutgers had posted 15 shutouts on the season and only once had given up two goals. One of those shutouts was a 1-0 victory over Penn State in Piscat- away on Oct. 18. But in the rematch, Penn State's of- fense came up big. The Nittany Lions (17-3-2) scored their first goal in the ninth minute off a corner kick from Nickolette Driesse. On the corner kick, Driesse placed the ball into the penalty area, and Raquel Rodriguez punched it toward the net from 6 yards out. With the ball heading toward the goal, sopho- more defender Elizabeth Ball redirected the shot over a diving Casey Murphy and into the back of the net for her second goal of the season. Rodriguez's assist was the 26th of her Nittany Lion career, moving her into a tie for ninth all-time at Penn State. Rutgers (16-3-2) responded with a pair of shot attempts in the 15th and 18th min- utes. The first attempt went wide, while Cassie Inacio's shot attempt in the 18th minute was corralled by senior keeper Britt Eckerstrom. Inacio's shot attempt was the lone shot on goal for Rutgers. Penn State doubled its lead in the 26th minute. Sophomore midfielder Emily Ogle gathered in a rebound, moved up the field a few yards and put a shot past Murphy from 22 yards out. The Lions held on for their ninth shutout of the season, limiting Rutgers to only five shot attempts. The Knights had been averaging 16 shots per game. Afterward, Walsh said that the loss to Rutgers during the regular season, which ended a five-game winning streak, had been a pivotal moment for her team. "[It] helped us a ton," she said. "We learned a lot about ourselves. You look at those moments and you make sure you take as much out of those mo- ments as you can, you don't lose your way along the way and you keep talking about progress. This team has really kept its eyes on the prize, which is what's coming up in the next stage." That next stage was the NCAA tourna- ment, and PSU began play with a 5-0 romp over visiting Albany on Nov. 13. ■ WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY Nittany Lions claim second Big Ten crown Penn State won its second Big Ten women's cross country champi- onship, totaling 53 points and plac- ing three runners in the top 10 on Nov. 1 at the Sydney R. Marovitz Golf Course in Chicago. The championship is the Nittany Lions' first since 2009. The Lions were led by sen- ior Tori Ger- lach, who fin- ished fourth with a time of 20 minutes, 4.9 seconds. Following Gerlach were Elizabeth Chikotas in sixth place and Jillian Hunsberger in ninth. "I'm really proud of the way the women fought today," said Penn State's John Gondak, who was later named Big Ten Coach of the Year. "We knew it was going to be an in- credible challenge to try and knock off Michigan, which is the No. 2 team in the country. We talked be- fore the competition, and I told them for us to win we need to put four women in the top 10 and our No. 5 needed to be within the top 25. From 1K into the race, the women positioned themselves great and just fought and fought and came away with an incredibly tight victo- ry over an outstanding Michigan squad." Penn State's five-point win over the Wolverines tied for the fourth- smallest margin of victory in Big Ten women's cross country champi- onship history. In 1998, Wisconsin defeated Michigan by a score of 31- GERLACH MEN'S SOCCER Loss to Ohio State brings end to season After battling for 92 minutes, Penn State fell to Ohio State, 1-0, in overtime in the quarterfinal round of the Big Ten tournament Nov. 8 in Columbus. Evan Finney made five saves in the match, but Ohio State's Kyle Culbertson was finally able to put one past the junior goalkeeper in overtime. It was the Lions' second overtime game in as many days, as they had defeated Michigan State, 2-1, in the tournament's first round to set up their quarterfinal matchup with the league's regular-season champ. The Lions concluded their season with a 7-8-3 overall record and a 2-4-2 mark in Big Ten play. Junior forward Connor Mal- oney led Penn State with seven goals and two assists, earning first-team All-Big Ten honors for the second time in his ca- reer. His brother, midfielder Austin Mal- oney, was an All-Freshman honoree. ■

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