Penn State Phryday

Yinzers,

With no football to rave about and no basketball to sulk about anymore, our Penn State Phryday updates will be, more or less, a hodgepodge of lesser-followed Penn State spring sports. With my last few weeks as a Penn Stater winding down, I am beginning to realize how much I will miss Happy Valley. But enough about that, let's talk sports.

Wrestling
At the NCAA Championships at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Nebraska, the Penn State Nittany Lions have advanced four athletes to the quarterfinals. Penn State's Brad Pataky, an unseeded wrestler, took down #8 Matt Steintrager from Central Michigan to advance to the quarterfinals of the 125 weight class. He will face #1 Angel Escobedo of Indiana in his quarterfinal match. Penn State's #5 Frank Molinaro defeated Pitt's Eric Albright in the 149 weight class and will face Edinboro's Torsten Gillespie in the quarterfinals. Penn State's #4 Cyler Sanderson picked up a victory in the 157 weight class over Dan Gonsor of Virginia to advance to the quarterfinals where he will take on #5 Steve Fittery of American University. Rounding out the quarterfinalists, Penn State's #6 Dan Vallimont took home a victory in the 165 weight class, defeating #11 Rick Schumlyen of Bloomsburg University. He will face Stanford's Nick Amuchastegui in the quarterfinals. Good luck to all the Penn State wrestlers.

Men's Volleyball
The defending national champion Nittany Lion men's volleyball team is currently ranked #6 in the nation with an overall record of 17-3 with their only losses coming to USC, BYU and Loyola-Chicago. All that matters is the Nittany Lions are playing solid vball as of late. They look to a match tonight at 7:00 at Saint Francis (PA) and open up Big-10 play on Sunday at the Beej Center when they host Ohio State at 4:00. Bring that championship back to its home, the Mecca of collegiate volleyball, Happy Valley.

Lady Lion Basketball
The Lady Lions got knocked out of the WNIT as well this week. At least they made a tournament. The Lady Lions fell to Hofstra last night 76-68. It was a solid season for the Lady Lions. They were not really expected to make any noise in the Big-10 this year, but ended up with a bid to the WNIT. Good luck next year ladies.

Nittany Lions Baseball
The Nittany Lion baseball season is underway as well. I have only been to one PSU baseball game in my 4 years here, and here is why: the one game I went to, the Nittany Lions got one-hit by a lefty from Minnesota who topped out at 83 mph. I lost all hope at that point. This year, the Nittany Lions currently sit at 4-8. They took home wins against Cincinnati and Seton Hall in the Big-10/Big East Classic in St. Petersburg and Clearwater, FL and victories against Mcneese State and Dallas Baptist in the YMBL Cardinal Classic in Beaumont, TX. The Nittany Lions then went on to get buried by Texas A&M and Texas State losing all 5 games, getting outscored 64-19. The Nittany Lions return to action at the Coca-Cola Classic in Rock Hill, SC when they play Kent State today at 11:00 am.

If you have any other sports interests, check out http://www.gopsusports.com.

For the Glory,
B Brog