I know this is a Penn State blog, but this series is going to be a lot of fun.

In case you're wondering which team I'll be pulling for, GO FLYERS!

Your trophy are belong to me!

Congratulations to Phil Davis for winning the National Championship in the 197 pound weight class in wrestling.

Congratulations are also in order for Bubba Jenkins who finished second in the final match against top seeded Brent Metcalf of Iowa in the 149 division.

Both wrestlers were instrumental in assisting the Penn State wrestling team that featured four all-americans to a third place finish overall. Well done, men. You make us proud.

WE ARE!

AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli

Last night in front of a mostly hostile crowd in Sacramento, California the Lady Lions volleyball team did what they did all season long. They took care of business. And in doing so they secured the second national championship for the program by beating the number one seeded Stanford Cardinal.

In a match that featured six all americans on the court the two teams battled back and fourth like a pair of heavyweight boxers standing toe-to-toe in the middle of the ring exchanging blows. Penn State won the first two games (30-25 30-26), but they could have easily gone either way as both teams were playing well after overcoming some pregame jitters. Both teams shot poorly in game one, but Penn State played their best defense of the year digging out everything Stanford could throw at them.

After the intermission Stanford came out determined not to go down without a fight. They turned time and again to their star, Foluke Akinradewo, who registered 18 kills in the match. Along with the inspired play of Cynthia Barbosa who had 16 kills of her own the Cardinal took game three. Penn State shot poorly (.140 hitting percentage) as they struggled to handle the Stanford serves. It was the first game Penn State had lost in the entire tournament.

In Game four Standford came out and grabbed the momentum hitting .535. Akinradewo and Barbosa were stellar again as Penn State continued to struggle to get good attacks. Megan Hodge did her best to keep her team alive with kill after kill, but it just wasn't enough. When Stanford tied the match at 2 apiece the home Cardinal crowd came to life and it appeared Penn State was not going to be able to recover. Everything was going Standford's way.

When Stanford overcame a 0-2 deficit to take a 4-3 lead in game five it looked like it was all over. But Penn State regrouped and came out swinging led by Hodge once again. Penn State went on a seven point rally to take a commanding 10-4 lead with two kills each from Christa Harmotto and Alisa Glass. Penn State would never look back until Hodge registered her 27th kill of the match to close out the game 15-8.

The National Championship is Penn State's second with the first coming in 1999. It's the third national championship for a Penn State squad in 2007 joining the Men's Gymnastics and Fencing teams which won it all back in the spring.

Congratulations to the Lady Lions. They were fun to watch all year long and they make all of us proud.WE ARE PENN STATE!

Bring On The Tree!

In the middle of the night last night the women's volleyball team swept #6 Cal in three games (30-28 30-25 30-16) to advance to the NCAA finals tonight Saturday night against #4 Stanford. The Cardinal beat Southern Cal in a grueling five game match. By the time the match ended the PSU women didn't take the court until after midnight on the east coast.

Penn State and Stanford met once already this year and the Cardinal barely beat out our ladies in five games in New Haven, Connecticut. (30-23 23-30 27-30 30-28 15-9) But the PSU women really seem to have hit their stride and they are just demolishing everyone in front of them right now. I think this is going to be a good match and Penn State is going to be bringing home the trophy this year.

For those of you like me who have nothing better to do on a Saturday night than to watch tall athletic women in spandex you can catch the game on ESPN2 at 6 PM 9 PM ET. Bring on the tree!

Football may be on a temporary hiatus, but there was no lack of excitement for Penn State sports on Saturday night.

The thrills started early Saturday night when the women's volleyball team rolled over Brigham Young. The Lady Lions dominated the #17 ranked Cougars in a 3-0 sweep (30-23 30-15 30-18). The win qualifies the women for the final four in Sacramento next weekend. Their next opponent will be a very strong Cal team that knocked off the #2 seed Nebraska this weekend as well.

Then later in the evening the men's basketball team pulled off an 89-86 overtime thriller against the Seton Hall Pirates. Here is the Boxscore if you're interested. Penn State played from behind the entire game as Seton Hall came out smoking hot shooting over 60% from the field and from behind the arc in the first half. But Penn State battled back from a 15 point first half deficit and eventually tied the game at 75 with a minute to go on a Talor Battle three point shot.

Battle kept the momentum going into the overtime period as he started off hitting two threes and converting on a drive to the lane to give Penn State an 83-77 lead. The Lions would go on to win, though they once again missed several foul shots down the stretch to let Seton Hall hang around. The captains on this team need to start keeping everyone after practice and telling them nobody leaves until they can hit ten free throws in a row. There's no excuse for hitting 50% from the free throw line like we do game in and game out.

One of the key games to the game was Ed DeChellis switching from man-to-man to the 2-3 zone defense in the second half. Seton Hall was lighting up the scoreboard against our man defense, but the zone slowed them down enough to allow Penn State to get back in it. So those those voices that say Ed can't manage a game just got a little bit quieter today. This is a huge win for the program which should give them a major confidence boost heading into conference play in a few weeks. I still wish I knew how we lost to Rider.

Your interesting stat of the game: Brandon Hassell only played five minutes.

But the momentum didn't stop there this weekend. The #5 ranked wrestling team pulled off a stunning upset of #3 ranked Oklahoma State. The men won by a score of 21-18 and I have no idea what that means in wrestling. I'm sure with a win of this magnitude The Nittany Line is working on his Wrestling Wreport as we speak. I look forward to reading it.

And as if that women's basketball team used some smothering defense to defeat the Georgetown Hoyas by a score of 56-47.

Last night I was fortunate to find a restaurant where I could simultaneously watch the Penn State Women's Volleyball team and the Pitt-Navy game on television. Just wanted to share some thoughts on both.

How low has our one time in state rival sunk? They lost to a service academy on a Wednesday night. How sad is it they have to move games to Wednesday night to get on television? I thought they were having a yellow out or something until I realized those were empty seats. Seriously guys, look at your program. You need Penn State. Take the 2-for-1.

As for the game, LeSean McCoy looked really good, but then it was Navy. Wannstedt completely blew the game. He nearly blew it going for it on fourth down from his own 25 yard line near the end of regulation. Then in the second overtime he should have kicked a field goal and gone to a third, but he chose to go for it on fourth and goal from the three. McCoy had been gaining yards in huge chunks all night, but Wanny said "They think we're going to run, so we're going to pass. But maybe they know we know they think we're going to run, so they will defend the pass knowing that we think they think we know they think we're going to run. So we'll pass because they know we know they think we're going to run." Anyway, it worked wonderfully. By the end of the game it was just me and one other guy at the bar. At the start of the first overtime he told me he wanted Navy to win. I told him I just wanted Pitt to lose. We were both happy.

The women's volleyball game was very entertaining. I was surprised how big the crowd was at the game. If you're a student currently at Penn State, do yourself a favor and go check out a match some time. It made me wish I had the Big Ten channel so I could watch more. Not only was it a high level of volleyball, seeing tall women in spandex smashing volleyballs in each others faces just does something for me.

By the way, I'm wishing I had more time to cover other PSU sports. If anyone out there follows another PSU sport with the same passion as football, let me know and we'll set you up with a platform here at BSD. I would love to have another writer covering other PSU sports. I, unfortunately, just don't have time to do it myself.

Fresh off the Fencing Team National Championship from a few weeks ago, a second spring sport has brought home a national championship to Dear Old State. Congratulations to the men's gymnastics team for bringing home the trophy.

One thing this blog has done is made me realize how great some of Penn State's other sports teams are. I guess I never really appreciated that. This is a record 12th National Championship for the men's gymnastics team. Congratulations guys.

Hail to the Lion loyal and true
Hail Alma Mater with her White and Blue
Penn State forever! Molder of men
Fight for her Honor! Fight!
And Victory again!

Yep. That's the Bryce Jordan Center you're looking at there. The home of the men's and women's basketball teams is going through some changes this week to prepare for the rodeo.

Well, what would you expect from a school lodged in the middle of mountains and cow pastures? The depressing thing is they are expecting over 10,000 fans to pack into the Jordan Center. Sadly, that's more than our average attendence for a basketball game.

The report says 60 bulls will be brought into the arena this weekend. That's a lot of bull. And with a lot of bull comes a lot of bull sh*t. What do they plan on doing with all that bull sh*t? Apparently haul it out with the dirt, which they plan to reuse the next time the rodeo comes to town.

So the next time you're planning on attending an event in the Jordan Center, you might want to bring some air fresheners with you.

I know I tend to be a little football heavy here and probably don't give the other Penn State sports teams their due outside of an occassional basketball post or two. But when a team wins a National Title for Penn State, well dammit, that deserves some recognition.

Congratulations to the men's and women's fencing team for bringing home the NCAA National Championship trophy. This is Penn State's tenth national championship under head coach Emmanuil Kaidanov and their first since 2002 after finishing in second place last year.

Three Nittany Lions made it to the gold round, which is like the final round, except it's gold or something. Freshman Anastasia Ferdman finished fourth in the epee division. I don't know what that means. As far as I can tell they are dueling with zucchini.

Sophomore Caitlin Thompson did well coming up just short in the final match of the saber division. Ok sabers. I know what those are.

Not that kind of saber

Freshman Doris Willette led the Lions winning the gold medal. She was forced to fight? duel? compete against her teammate Tamara Najm who would go on to finish fourth overall in the foil. Now what's the difference between a foil and a saber?

Surprisingly, there was no media photographers at the event so it's really hard to find pictures of the tournament. BSD was able to obtain this exclusive photo from the match.

When we last left our Lady Lions they were about to take on Ohio State who was ranked #12 in the nation. The easily handled the Buckeyes 3-0. Freshman Megan Hodge set a season high with 23 kills for the Lions in a three game match.

Since that match the Lions have been mowing over some pretty stiff competition. They have beaten:

Iowa 3-0
Indiana 3-0
Purdue 3-0
#24 Minnesota 3-1
#13 Wisconsin 3-0

The Lady Lions are just rolling over everyone at this point and seem poised to win another Big Ten title this year. Some of the players are getting some national recognition for their play, as well as their lives off the court.

Apparently senior outside hitter/defensive specialist Ashley Fidler wants to be a fashion designer. And sophomore outside hitter Nicole Fawcett is giving SI Oncampus tours of her crib. But some of them are being recognized for their play on the court. Sophomore middle hitter Christa Harmotto was recognized as the Big Ten Player of the Week for her play against Indiana and Purdue.

Obviously not really her pantry. What college pantry is void of Raman Noodles?

But what I really find interesting about this team is their pregame warmup routine.

Forgetting to bring a ball for the match, they used the next best thing

It's great to see a Penn State team doing well and dominating their sport, but it's also refreshing to see a bunch of kids just going out and having fun. GO LIONS!!!