Blue White Illustrated

WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL Lions regroup after early-season defeats Russ Rose did not mince words after his team dropped the last two sets in a 3- 2 loss to No. 19 North Carolina on Aug. 26 at Rec Hall. Penn State had been two points away from victory, but it surren- dered seven unanswered points to lose the fourth set, then faded in the decisive fifth set, 15-9. Afterward, the Nittany Lions' longtime coach was not happy. "How we lost this one was one of the worst ways that a team can lose," he said. "That is to quit and disappoint so many people who care about the program and support the program." The Nittany Lions fared no better Sept. 3-4 at the Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge, dropping a 3-2 match to host Colorado before being swept by Stanford the next day. By the time they headed to the Syra- cuse Classic, they had plunged from No. 9 to No. 20 in the AVCA rankings. But after the rough start, the Lions began to regroup at Syracuse, sweeping the host Orange along with Siena, and defeating Hofstra in four sets. The fol- lowing week, they romped to the cham- pionship of the Penn State Invitational with sweeps of Rhode Island, Howard and Clemson. Abby Detering, Haleigh Washington and Heide Thelen earned All-Tournament honors for Penn State (8-3). Detering guided the team to a .354 hitting clip in three matches, dishing out 91 assists while adding 14 digs, seven kills and six blocks. Washington led the team in both kills (27) and hitting percentage (.610) while posting a team-best 15 blocks. The- len's transition to the right side yielded results, as she came in second on the team in kills with 21 while hitting at a .447 clip. WOMEN'S SOCCER Freshman's first goal lifts PSU over Badgers Penn State closed out the opening weekend of its Big Ten regular season with a 1-0 victory Sept. 18 against host Wisconsin. Freshman defender Laura Suero tallied her first career goal in the 72nd minute, helping the Nittany Lions improve to 5-2-2 (1-0-1) and extend their unbeaten streak to five games (4-0-1). The matchup of the 2015 Big Ten regu- lar season co-champions was a defen- sive battle, as the two squads combined for eight shots on goal, five of them by Penn State. On Sept. 9, Penn State shut out visit- ing San Diego State, 3-0, to give coach Erica Dambach her 200th Division I vic- tory. MEN'S SOCCER Fourth-ranked Terps outlast Penn State Playing its fourth overtime match of the season, Penn State fell, 3-2, to fourth-ranked Maryland on Sept. 18 in College Park, Md. The Nittany Lions (3-3-1, 1-1-0) took the lead twice in the match, with sopho- more forward Dayonn Harris scoring both of their goals. But penalty kicks and an overtime goal lifted the Terrapins to victory. ■ N O T E B O O K as he was belted and smothered by an- other defender. The Lions had run the exact same play moments earlier without success. "It went to Mike Archie, and [Richardson's pass] just missed him," Engram recalled. "I told Joe on the sideline, you have to call that play again, and wouldn't you know it, they had the perfect defense to stop it. [Wide receiver] Freddie [Scott] made a good block, just enough of his guy, and the only thing I could think about is, I have to get into the end zone. If I'm going to call my own number, I didn't want to go back to the sideline and face Joe and the rest of the staff without scoring that touchdown." The 24-20 victory gave the Lions third place in the Big Ten, and on New Year's Day in the mud and rain of Tampa, En- gram capped his record-breaking Penn State career as the MVP of the Lions' 43- 15 thumping of Auburn in the Outback Bowl. He had four receptions for 113 yards and two touchdowns, prompting this ef- fusive praise from his head coach after the game: "Very few athletes have been the deciding factor in more Penn State foot- ball games than Bobby Engram." Now, James Franklin's Penn State foot- ball team is hoping it can get Bobby's tal- ented son to follow his father. Dean Engram is a 5-foot-10, 160-pound soph- omore at Gonzaga High School in Wash- ington, D.C., and already has a scholarship offer from Franklin. Whether Bobby will influence his son to enroll at his alma mater remains to be seen. The Engram family is a close one. Daughter Bobbi (17) is the oldest child, followed by Dean, Trey (10) and Phoebe (5). Although their permanent home has been in suburban Pittsburgh, the family moves temporarily to wherever Bobby is coaching. That enables Deanna to take care of Bobbi, who was born with hered- itary sickle-cell anemia disease. Nearly 10 years ago, Engram established The Bobby Engram Foundation to support families affected by sickle-cell anemia and to spur more public awareness of the disease. "Everything happens for a reason, like my daughter's disease," Engram said, "and I think it's up to us as a family to take the lead in really trying to make a difference and do our part, and the ultimate goal is to find a permanent cure for the disease. Families have to be together. My daugh- ter's disease is no problem because every- where we go, we're in a network for sickle-cell anemia and we find doctors and facilities, the best of the best, to take care of her. … That's one reason we started the foundation, because a lot of people aren't in our position and we want to en- sure that help is affordable to every kid." As you can see, Bobby Engram is not just Penn State's greatest wide receiver but one of the football team's true humanitar- ians. Joe Paterno would be proud. ■ ENGRAM CONTINUED FROM PAGE 50

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