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All Pickin' Nits Does Is Win

Well, we try hard.

By Ryan Stevens
Matthew O'Haren-USA TODAY Sports

This past week saw Penn State athletics climb to great lengths. Penn State wrestling brought back their 4th consecutive NCAA title in come from behind fashion including individual national championship performances from seniors David Taylor (165) and Ed Ruth (184). Nittany Lions fencing brought home their 13th NCAA title and became the winningest fencing program in the NCAA. Unfortunately, there was some, NOT A LOT OF IT, negative attention as well this past week:

RUGBY

We've all had that time in life when lighting random shit on fire was the greatest thing in the world. Some just grow out of it faster than others do. Penn State athletics decided to suspend the entire rugby program immediately after two members were found responsible for burning down their on-campus equipment shed.

I smirk remembering the times of lighting mulch and wood chips laced with WD-40 on fire.

Baseball

The Nittany Lions are riding high winning five of their last six games. Granted they were against NYIT and Bucknell, but at least we know these guys know how to take care of business so far against weaker competition. At first glance, I thought it was a typo and they were playing N.J.I.T.

This Week Ahead: Penn State starts a weekend series with Northwestern at home on Friday looking to improve to .500 on the young season.

Softball

I think we've found out what Purdue is good for now: softball and aerospace engineering. The Boilers routed Penn State last weekend in a three-game sweep this past weekend. Let's just say Purdue scored nine runs in the first half of a doubleheader on Saturday; the Nittany Lions scored nine runs all weekend.

This Week Ahead: The No. 5 Michigan Wolverines come to State College for a weekend series with the Nittany Lions. I Heart Nik Stauskas. Carry on.

Golf

The men sat 12th out of 27 after Monday in the Middleburg Bank Intercollegiate. Junior Jens Talbert tallied a career-low 67 to pace the Nittany Lions.

The women were tied for fifth after the first day in the Briar's Creek Invitational. THE MASTERS NEEDS TO HURRY UP

This Week Ahead: The men head to the Kepler Intercollegiate at Ohio State on April 12 & 13. The Bryan Park Invitational in Browns Summit, N.C. this weekend for the women will be the last tournament before the Big Ten Championship at the end of April.

Lax

The bros took down Dartmouth 10-6 on Tuesday and lost to Albany 17-10 on Saturday. Their "smokey grey" jerseys are sick if I may say so.

The women took down Michigan on Sunday 20-7, which we all like to hear.

This Week Ahead: Villanova comes to take on the bros on Saturday and the women host Drexel on Wednesday before heading down to Florida on Sunday.

Tennis

"Good job guys, you hit the ball out of the park last week." Oh wait, that's not a good thing in Tennis. "Way to work the net and smash the corners gentlemen" Yeah, that's better. The men took down Michigan State 4-3 and went to Ann Arbor to beat Michigan 5-2.

The women quite simply, well..... gave up a touchdown to Michigan and Michigan State last week. Does the "You can only go up from here," speech work in tennis?

This Week Ahead: The men get a visit from the Land of Lincoln on Friday and Sunday from Illinois and Northwestern and respectively. Can they carpool here? The women head west to face Illinois and Northwestern this weekend.

Men's Volleyball

I guess they weren't joking about Loyola (IL) being decent at volleyball. Penn State dropped a 3-1 affair to the Ramblers, but came away with a 3-1 win over Lewis. Junior Aaron Russell earned EIVA Offensive Player of the Week honors this week. I wonder what he said that was so offensive?

This Week Ahead: The last two home games of the year for Penn State are this weekend against Princeton and George Mason. Peter Russell is the only senior on the Nittany Lions.

Women's Basketball

The Lady Lions are still going strong in the NCAA Tournament, picking up a dominating win over Florida in the round of 32 (83-61) after eking out a first round win over Wichita State. Maggie Lucas and Dara Taylor each had 22 points for the Lions to send them into the Sweet Sixteen, where they'll take on #2 seed Stanford at Stanford.

Lucas was also named to the WBCA all-region 6 team, her second such honor in a row. She's still a nominee for All-American status.

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