Pickin' Nits Will Be OK

So, all that stuff last week about coming home and other nonsense was great. You really have to love Big Ten Football.

I did find myself reciting this memorable soliloquy of emotion on Saturday a couple times as well, but I digress. We'll be alright, though.

Let's dive right in this week!

Cross Country

Ok, we'll try this again because the cross country teams didn't do any form of intercollegiate competitive running this week.

This Week Ahead: The Notre Dame Invitational on Friday in South Bend.

Field Hockey

I didn't know the NBA was in charge of the scheduling process for the field hockey team. Three games in six days for these girls was quite a task, but it wasn't enough to dethrone them!

The No. 7 ranked Nittany Lions outscored opponents 11-5 in their three contests last week improving their record to 8-2 overall and 2-1 in Big Ten play.

Senior Taylor Herald had three goals over the week leading Penn State over that three game span.

This Week Ahead: A weekend trip to Phili starts on Friday for Penn State taking on Drexel and then Temple on Sunday.

Soccer

Penn State saw an offensive explosion on Wednesday night's 6-2 win over Penn. Sophomore forward Connor Maloney had two goals, one of which was something the average human couldn't complete on FIFA, but it was a thing of beauty to say the least on a rebound attempt. Remember this name for all the soccer nerds out there: Duke Lacroix. This kid is going to be something special.

Senior goalkeeper Andrew Wolverton got the Penn State all-time shutouts record on Sunday in a 1-0 win over Michigan. It was Wolverton's 29th save for his career.

Just like field hockey, the women played three games over a six day span this past week. A 7-0 route Bucknell, 4-1 win over Northwestern and a tight 2-1 win over Illinois rounded things out for the Nittany Lions.

Freshman forward Frannie Crouse scored the first goal against Illinois to improve Penn State's overall record to 10-1-0. I found out this weekend that Crouse ran a 4.8 40 time in offseason training workouts. First round draft pick material right there.

This Week Ahead: The men are at Bucknell on Wednesday and welcome Rutgers to Jeffrey Field for the first time as Big Ten foes on Saturday night. The women head to Minnesota on Friday and to Wisconsin on Sunday.

Volleyball

Business as usual.

3-0 in a national championship rematch in Wisconsin was as dominant of a performance I've ever seen in volleyball.

3-1 at Minnesota. Senior Nia Grant, junior Aiyana Whitney and junior Megan Courtney all registered double-digit kills.

Let's see what the rest of the BIg Ten will have in store.

This Week Ahead: The road trip finishes up after a Friday match at Nebraska and Saturday at Iowa.