But since I started posting these weekend updates the teams keep winning, so I can’t stop now.
As I’ve already reported, the football team knocked off Michigan State to win the B10 title. Following the team’s return to Happy Valley (the photo on the right shows Michael Robinson carrying the B10 championship trophy into Rec Hall for a welcome back rally Saturday night), a bunch of fans took over the downtown streets celebrating the turnaround season. The B10 championship meant that Penn State had now claimed all five fall regular season Big Ten team championships, a first in B10 history (the previous record had been three fall championships).
The women’s volleyball team was in action on Friday and Saturday also. On Friday, the women swept #19 Minnesota 3-0. They followed that with another 3-0 sweep, this time over Iowa, on senior night. In the photo on the left, three of my Facebook buddies, Sam Tortorello, Cassy Salyer, and Kaleena Walters, are shown holding the B10 volleyball championship trophy (Sam and Kaleena are seniors and were honored before the match). The girls extended their B10 record to 18-0 and can close out a perfect season with away victories this coming weekend. If the girls can win those matches, and they will be heavy favorites to do so, the fall sports programs’ Big Ten record will be an absolutely phenomenal 49-1 (the sole loss be a the controversal last second football loss to Michigan).
Just for completeness sake, I must comment on the other fall sports. Field hockey’s season is over – the only think left to report is whether “Grand Niece” Natalie Berrena makes All-American or not (the announcement is due later today). Women’s soccer continued their march through the NCAA tournament with a 4-1 win over Texas A&M on Saturday afternoon (Saturday was a busy day for me – caught the Penn State men’s basketball win over Cornell at 12:30, rushed over to the soccer field to catch the end of the 1:00 women’s NCAA soccer game, headed downtown to Bill Pickle’s Tavern to meet up with friends to watch the Nit’s 4:00 football win over MSU, zipped up to Recreation Hall in time to cheer the 8:00 girls volleyball team on in the Iowa win, then closed the evening out listening to “JR and Natalie” at Cafe 210 – first set at 10:30) – it’s days like this that make me love Happy Valley). The women now meet Santa Clara here Friday – with a win they advance to the Final Four in College Station TX.
The men’s soccer team will open NCAA play with a match against Seton Hall here tomorrow. The men have earned an 11th seed but are considered one of the more dangerous teams in the tournament coming into the tournament riding a nine game winning streak holding a win over the #1 seed Maryland Terrapins and two wins over the #3 seed Indiana Hoosiers. They should be a force to be reckoned with.
Just in case you are wondering if I am going to be publishing these tomes every week, have no fear. I have no intention of continuing to type them up. It’s just that the teams have made this remarkable run this fall and I didn’t want to do anything to jinx them. Once we get the NCAA championships out of the way in soccer and volleyball, and the bowl game in football, I will cease and desist from my weekly reports.