Lady Lions headed to the Big Ten championship, rout Illinois 79-64

The Lady Lions are on their way to the Big Ten final against whichever team wins tonight's Michigan State/Ohio State, following their up-and-down 79-64 demolition of a red-hot Illinois squad today in Indy. Big Ten freshman of the year Maggie Lucas finished with 23 points, including five 3-pointers to break the Big Ten single-season record, and five rebounds. The team's lone senior, Julia Trogele, was equally dynamic with 20 points and nine rebounds.

Nittany Digs: 2010 Big Ten Champs, National No. 4 Seed

Penn State will get home-court advantage
through most of the NCAA tournament.
(Photo: Steve Manuel)

Penn State locked up the 2010 Big Ten Women's Volleyball championship by sweeping the Iowa Hawkeyes Friday night. But just as one would expect in this very odd season for the Lions, they turned right around and lost to No. 15 Minnesota yesterday afternoon. It's not like a Russ Rose-coached team to look ahead, but it definitely felt like this team is keeping both eyes focused squarely on the tournament.

Speaking of which, Penn State also grabbed itself a very nice No. 4 seed in the national tournament. Penn State will be able to enjoy home-court advantage through the regional round, as the first three rounds will take place in the friendly confines of Rec Hall.

Details below the break.

Big Ten Divisions Announcement Coming at 7 p.m.

Give Jim Delany and the Big Ten credit. The conference has managed to stay front and center in the news cycle for nine straight months, and will continue to be there until Nebraska plays its first Big Ten conference game.

10 Minutes Or Less: 2005 Wisconsin at Penn State (Senior Day)

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The 2005 season may have lost some of its luster among Penn State fans, what with the 40 total wins, another Big Ten title, and three New Years Day bowl games since the departure of Tamba Hali, Michael Robinson, Alan Zamaitis & Co. But for those who had experienced the four losing seasons, anemic offenses, and calls for Joe Paterno's head, this season was--save for one second in Ann Arbor--a euphoric resurgence to glory.

After what felt like one emotional game after another--wins at Northwestern, against Ohio State, the loss at Michigan--you would expect a fan base to have a tough time maintaining the same level of enthusiasm this late in the season. But for the Nittany nation, there was five tough seasons' worth of pent up energy to burn. Unfortunately for the visitors, on this day they would feel the full force of that energy.

Wisconsin was having a surprisingly successful season of its own, rolling into Happy Valley with a 9-1 record, tied with Penn State for first in the Big Ten. The Badgers' record-setting offense led the Big Ten coming into this game, scoring 39.7 points per game. Heisman Trophy and Doak Walker Award candidate Brian Calhoun entered the day No. 5 nationally in both all-purpose yardage (184.1 ypg) and rushing yardage (135.3 ypg) and led the nation with 21 touchdowns. Then he, along with the rest of the Badgers, ran into Penn State.

On that unseasonably warm November afternoon, 109,865 fans packed Beaver Stadium, becoming the second-largest home crowd (at the time) in Penn State football history.

For Penn State, it would end up being one of the most emotional senior days of the Joe Paterno era. From the offensive leaders like Robinson, to the stacked defense that featured Hali, Zamaitis, Calvin Lowry, Chris Harrell, Matt Rice, and Anwar Phillips, these seniors would not let this opportunity slip through their grip.

What we were treated to was one of the most dominating performances ever by Penn State against an eventual 10-win Big Ten team. Wisconsin even capped their own season with a Capital One Bowl win over a supposedly "faster" Auburn team out of the SEC.

Of course, I couldn't possibly finish this write up without mentioning that this game would also be my own senior day. After marching the previous 28 pregame routines with the Penn State Marching Blue Band, this one would be my last. It was the perfect ending, the perfect setting, and the perfect outcome on that sunny afternoon in Beaver Stadium.

(Annotations by Tim)


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Penn State Women Win Track's "Triple Crown"

As somebody who ran for his high school's cross country and track teams and ran for Penn State's club cross-country team, I'd be doing myself and the PSU blogosphere a great disservice if I didn't give the women's track team their due recognition for winning their third consecutive Big Ten outdoor title this past weekend, capturing the Big Ten's "Triple Crown" for the 2009-10 season in the process.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the fringe world of competitive running (i.e. 98% of you): A Triple Crown consists of winning championships in cross-country (Fall), indoor track (Winter), and outdoor track (Spring) all during the same school year. It is an extremely rare feat, perhaps the best analogy would be a football team going undefeated and winning national titles in back-to-back seasons (Nebraska last did it in 1994 and 1995). In fact, prior to this year, such a feat had only been achieved five times in Big Ten history, with Michigan in 2002-03 being the last team to do so. So yeah, Mr. Vice President, this IS a big f*cking deal.

Bridget Franek tells the feeble competition behind her to "drink up, be merry!" as she splashes into the water pit during the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

While there's plenty of praise to go around amongst the team members, a special shout-out goes to Bridget Franek* (pictured, right >>>) who helped carry the team with a victory in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (a race featuring giant hurdles plus a "water pit." That's right, a freakin' water pit.. admit it, you're already a tad more intrigued) along with third and fourth-place finishes in the 5,000 and 1,500-meter races, respectively.

Even though it's no secret that few people follow the cross-country/track teams, as Penn State sports fans, we should take pride in seeing our school be the best at whatever the sport they participate in...We now return to your regularly scheduled link-dumps of fluff articles about Big Ten expansion

* I have a personal bias towards long-distance runners, being that I was mainly a 1600-meter (mile), 3200-meter (2 mile), and occasional 4x800 guy back in high school.

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