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In another week where the football team captures the attention of Nittany Nation, let’s take a look at how some of the other Penn State sports teams are performing. Soccer season is coming to a close (it ended on Sunday for the Women’s squad), and the basketball teams will begin regular season play next week.
The Men’s soccer team fell to Northwestern in the final game of their season, but still earned the 5-seed in the upcoming Big Ten Conference Tournament. They will take on the 4-seed, Michigan State, on Sunday in East Lansing. Unfortunately the Women’s soccer team saw their season come to a close this past Sunday, falling to underdog to Rutgers in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament. It seems unlikely that the defending National Champions will have an opportunity to defend their title in the NCAA tournament this year.
The Women’s volleyball team is experiencing a rare losing streak, losing three-straight to Michigan (#17), Wisconsin (#3), and Minnesota (#2). Unfortunately, their schedule isn’t getting any easier, as they prepare to take on a top-ranked Nebraska team on Friday night. Less than 24 hours later, they will take on Iowa on Saturday afternoon. For obvious reasons, head coach Russ Rose is concerned with fatigue having an impact on his team’s play.
Basketball season is upon us with both the women and men competing in an exhibition game this week. The men’s team will host Lock Haven at the Bryce Jordan Center at 6 p.m. (students get in free). The Lady Lions took on Bloomsburg over the weekend, and came out on top, 85-41. Coach Coquese Washington hopes her team can become more consistent and communicate better on the court, but is pleased with where the team is at right now.
“I’m happy with where we are. We’ve certainly have some work to do before we tip off with Drexel. We have a couple of weeks to kind of smooth out some things, but I’m happy with where we are.”
Rounding out with some football news, Land of 10 wrote about some of the players’ reactions to the CFP ranking Penn State at #12 (Torrence Brown didn’t find out until Wednesday morning). You would expect Penn State’s new ranking to draw attention to James Franklin’s work in State College, but Campus Insiders were singing his praises before the rankings were released - even tossing his name into the Coach of the Year conversation. On their list of the Top 10 College Football Coaches, Franklin came in at #10. It’s hard to believe that he was on the hot-seat in the the eyes of some fans and media just over a month ago.