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Penn State Beaver Roar
December 2011
December 2011
Sports
Sports
Men rebound from slow start
Young Lady Lions team off to a strong start ANDREW DIPIETRANTONIO
‘Playing hard’ remains key, coach says FROM STAFF REPORTS Men’s basketball Coach Marcess Williams said his team is better than its 4-2 record may indicate. “We’re ‘right there’ in every game,” Williams said, referring to close scores in both their losses. Beaver lost Nov. 16 to LaRoche College 72-71 and Nov. 30 to Penn State Beaver DuBois 62-59. So what is it going to take to turn the 2011 Penn State University Athletic Conference team around? “Playing hard — like we’ve been doing the majority of the time,” Williams said. “I think we have formula, but they have to practice harder and be more committed.” A 77-52 win over Penn State WorthingtonScanton Dec. 2 was a big step in the right direction. In the game, senior Darius Prince recorded a double-double with 10 rebounds and 10 points. Sophomore Chris Weathers led with 14 points followed by senior Tony Houghton with 11. The win over Worthington-Scranton comes in sharp contrast to the conference-opening loss to rival DuBois just two days earlier. Beaver played hard at the start and was on top with two three pointers from junior Nick Miller, giving Beaver a 10-6 lead. Beaver controlled the game most of the first half, ending with a fivepoint lead. But DuBois took control in the second half, leading Beaver by as many as seven points. With less than two minutes to play, Beaver came to within five points. Late fouls kept DuBois with the lead, but with less than a min-
ute to play, Miller drew a foul on a layup sending him to the free throw line for a three-point opportunity. But he missed the free throw, and Beaver fell short at the buzzer. Miller led all scorers with 18 points followed by Prince with 10. Sophomore Quentin Burton led the team with five rebounds followed by Weathers with four. Prince also led with four steals. Over the Thanksgiving break Nov. 22, Beaver beat cross-town rival Geneva College at home 89-82. Beaver had a slow start through much of the first half, ending the half with a six-point deficit. Beaver’s only first-half lead came when Houghton hit a three-point shot with a little more than six minutes to play. But Beaver came out of the locker room determined in the second half. Freshman Robert Agurs and Miller started the half with a 5-2 run, followed by a layup plus a foul shot from Prince to tie the game. Back-toback points from Prince and Hougton gave Beaver its first lead of the half, and a three point shot from Burton later extended that lead to 10 points. Geneva responded with a 10-point run, tying the game at 65 with less than 10 minutes. Geneva took the lead briefly at 67-65, but a three-point shot from Hougton shifted the lead back to Beaver, who never trailed the rest of the game. Prince led with 20 points and five rebounds, followed by Houghton with 13 points and Miller and Agurs with 11 points each. Sophomore Alexis Shelton of the Penn State Beaver Athletic Department contributed to this report.
Senior Staff Writer
ahd5039@psu.edu
New coach, same results. The transition to new Coach Tim Moore seems to be no problem for the Penn State Beaver women’s basketball team. Even though they are a young team, they are still winning, and their 4-1 record proves it. In fact, the team is very young. Beaver dresses two juniors, three sophomores and five freshmen, with not a senior in the line-up. Beaver’s most recent victory came at home Dec. 2 with a 63-39 win over Penn State WorthingtonScranton. Junior Brooke Mulneix led with 21 points, followed by freshman Amanda Temple with 10. Both tied for most rebounds with 8 each. Two days earlier, the Lady Lions kicked off the Penn State University Athletic Conference season with a win over Penn State DuBois Nov. 30. Despite a 5-0 DuBois lead out of the gate, Beaver picked up momentum and ended the half with a 7-point lead.
The ROAR / Josie Sziminski
Corey Wright, 12, shoots a lay up against Penn State DuBois, helped by teammates Chris Weathers, 21, and Tony Houghton, 24.
The team started the second half with three consecutive 3-point shots from juniors Brooke Mulneix and Brittany Tomaselli. Despite a late surge from DuBois, Beaver hung on for a 92-84 win. Mulneix and freshman Amanda Temple led with 24 points each, followed by sophomores Kalynn Hill with 11 and Coleen Mead with 10. During the Thanksgiving break, the Lady Lions edged out a 3-point win against cross-town rival Geneva College in the first home game of the season. Beaver jumped out to an early 12-0 lead, and then Geneva came back with 9 points of their own. Beaver had the lead for most of the first half with 8 points each from Mead and Mulneix. Geneva took the lead with 27-25, but it was answered quickly by a 3-pointer from Mead. With 16 seconds left, Geneva took a 29-28 half time lead with two free throws. Beaver trailed for most of the second half. Geneva’s biggest lead was 10 at 49-39. However, Beaver came storming
Staff Writer
rpt124@psu.edu
Penn State Beaver wrestling Coach Jeff Winkle has high hopes for the team’s inaugural season, but so far injuries have plagued the team early in the season. The team opened the season at Washington and Jefferson College on Nov. 12, where five wrestlers took the mat.
With tough competition from different schools, Penn State Beaver won just one match in the 285pound division. Sophomore Wessley Mummert won 5-4 over Gabe Zimmerly of Manchester College. Matches were lost by sophomores Dylan Winkle and Tairo Maas, freshman Bob Tempalski, and junior Kevin Rice. On Nov. 16, the wrestlers trav-
eled to Penn State DuBois to compete in the first match of the PSUAC season. Due to injuries, the team could only fill four of the 11 weight classes. Another big win by Mummert gives him the most wins on the team. Maas lost a hard-fought match, only trailing by 1 late. Coach Winkle has the team signed up for other tournaments
this year and hopes to have a 10-man roster once the Beaver wrestlers have time to heal. “The team is starting out as expected with the new program being offered for the first time at Penn State Beaver,” Athletic Director Andy Kirschner said. “I am excited about Mummert, as he is showing strength and quickness on the mat.”
Winkle will start to comb the area for new and useful talent in the recruitment process as well. With his background and knowledge, the team is optimistic that Winkle will bring in new and useful talent as the program moves forward. Next the wrestlers will travel to Penn State Greater Allegheny for a 7 p.m. match Tuesday, Dec. 6.
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The ROAR / Wendi Barnett
Brooke Mulneix splits Penn State DuBois defenders as she shoots.
Fightin’ Beavs undaunted by season’s challenges JENNIFER FANNIN Staff Writer
Wrestling team fights against injuries in its first season BOB TIRAK
back and finished the game on an 18-5 run. The comeback was aided by the great shooting of Temple, who had 12 of the 18 final points, 8 from the free-throw line. Beaver took the lead 52-51 and held on to win 57-54. Temple finished the night with 17 points and 8 rebounds, and Mulneix had 16 points and 4 rebounds. After the game Moore was all smiles. “It’s a wonderful feeling to get that first home victory,” said Moore. “The girls did what they had to do to get the win.” Even so, “we have a lot of work to do,” Moore said. “We are a young and inexperienced team, and we can only get better from here.” Not only was Moore smiling, but so were all the players after the game. “I’m pretty excited. It feels great to get that first home victory,” Mulneix said. “I felt like we played good together, but we are young and have a lot to work on.” “As we grow as a team we can only get better,” said Mulneix. “We should get through our conference fairly easy.”
Penn State Beaver Roar
jmf471@psu.edu
The ROAR / Dan Trzcianka
Taylor Pauls holds his position at center ice as the Fightin’ Beavs face Slippery Rock University White.
Even though the team has made a comeback from zero wins, the Penn State Beaver Fightin’ Beavs still cannot manage to pull an above-500 record. The team, 2-3, lost its most recent game Nov. 30 against Slippery Rock University’s White team, 4-3. The Fightin’ Beavs defeated Geneva College 8-4 on Nov. 10 and beat Grove City College 13-1 Nov. 3. “We had a rough start at the beginning, but once we got going, we really got into it,” said Coach Steve Turyan. “We have really good teamwork going on in this season now
and I expect the rest of the season to go more smoothly.” Turyan said he does not see any apparent weaknesses, but some strengths of the team include everyone helping each other and the team working together as one. Alumni goalie Justin Vorbach agreed. “The more we play together, the better we get,” Vorbach said. “We’ve made major improvements over the last few games and I’m excited to see what were capable of. Without a doubt I would say we are one of the better teams this year, despite our record.” Junior centerman Dan Vish said the win against Geneva was a turnaround for the team. “We were sloppy in our own end at times,
but overall we played a sound game and got the win on Nov. 10. Even when we lost our last game on Nov. 30, we just couldn’t seem to score that much but played enough to win.” Junior defenseman Jacob Szemanski, team captain, had his first hat trick of the season against Geneva. A hat trick is three goals in a single game. “The hat trick was great and the team is playing well together,” said Szemanski. The team lost its first two games to the Community College of Allegheny County and Carnegie Mellon University. The team is in a three-way tie for sixth place in the conference.