By Carrie Philips

Battle-ing for an NCAA Berth

The last few games have been a struggle for the Nitts and now each game is critical if they want to make the NCAA tournament.  They face Minnesota (who just dropped out of the national rankings) tonight and will need Talor Battle to get back to the high scoring performances we remember.  In his recent 0-for display at Purdue, even a TomTom couldn’t help him find the bottom of the net.  

 

They’d Probably Let You Lick Their Fur

The Lady Lions have been more like kitty cats this season, and to make them seem more intimidating they will be wearing pink this Sunday in their contest against Iowa.  I suppose you can’t discontinue the annual “Pink Zone” in honor of breast cancer survivors and breast cancer awareness just because the squad has been playing soft (8th place in the Big Ten at 4-9).

 

Killing on the Court

Last week we mentioned the upcoming contest against Springfield.  In that match, Max Holt led the way to a PSU victory with ten kills on ten attempts - not too shabby.  The No. 1 ranked Nittany Lions’ men’s volleyball squad is still unbeaten as they continue on their pilgrimage to repeat their national championship from last year.  Tonight they will raise their 2008 National Championship banner in a ceremony before their match against No. 14 Ohio State.

 

Galloping Gayle

For PSU athlete Gayle Hunter, a recent Big Ten Athlete of the Week, there needs to be a larger award, NCAA athlete of the week, as she could have easily won that, too.  Hunter currently leads the nation in the pentathlon and is nationally ranked for the long jump and 60 meter hurdles.  She easily qualified for the NCAA Championships by crushing the requisite qualifying point total by almost 200 points, and at the same time beating the school record which happened to be her own.  Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that she is anchor of the 4×400 relay team holding the NCAA and world-leading time of 3:36:10.