Penn State Women's Volleyball Recap

The Penn State Nittany Lions were on the giving and receiving end of a pair of sweeps last weekend. As the Nittany Lions traveled to Temple and Louisville for their first competition on the road since a Tampa Bay Invitational match on Aug. 26 against Georgia Tech.

An abundant crowd of almost 2,500 fans packed into McGonigle Hall in Philadelphia and Penn State would waste no time.

The first set concluded by a 25-9 score led by team captain Allie Holland who accrued four kills and three blocks. 

Camryn Hannah slammed down five kills and Cassie Kuerschen and Jess Mruzik tallied together a plethora of digs on the defensive front for a solid team effort early on by Penn State. 

The second set final read 25-15 as Zoe Weatherington burst with efficiency by hitting .833. Holland continued to pour it on with four more kills and an impressive three service aces. 

The third set is when things got interesting, as the Nittany Lions trailed 25-24 before amassing three consecutive points to complete the sweep. Anjelina Starck led the charge by striking eight kills fused with .400 hitting in the set. 

Weatherington hit .500 in the match while leading the team at 11 kills. Hannah also posted double-digit kills with 10 on the afternoon while accruing two digs and a solo block in the effort. 

Holland put her versatility on full display by hitting .316 on an eight-kill performance packaged with five blocks and four aces. Holland has been one of the most prolific forces for the blue and white this season.

Avery Luoma, whose brother Matthew plays for the Penn State men’s volleyball team, tied the team lead at kills for Temple with six alongside Olivia Vance. 

The sweep of Temple would mark four wins in a row for Penn State. The No. 12 Nittany Lions would now have their sights set on the No. 2 Louisville Cardinals.

In the opening set, Louisville was substantially inefficient by hitting .059 as a team, but so was Penn State with .29 hitting. The messy set would end in the Cardinals' favor by a 25-17 score, as Aiko Jones’ four kills would make the difference.

Both squads would start executing more in the second set. Especially Mruzik for the blue and white, as she would hit .857 bundled with six kills and three digs.

Louisville would hit .333 in the second frame and maintain control for most of the set en route to a 25-19 result.
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The Cardinals would carry their momentum into the third set by springing out to a 5-0 lead and accomplishing the sweep by a 25-16 final blow to stay undefeated at 8-0.

Mruzik would post 12 kills as the team leader, and Hannah would inch closer toward 1,000 career kills with just one more to go.

Anna DaBeer claimed a double-double with 10 kills and 11 digs on the afternoon, and Jones clustered eight kills while hitting .312.

Although the Nittany Lions would post 10 blocks and constrict the Cardinals to .186 hitting, Louisville would excel in passing and ball movement along with five aces for the match win. 

Louisville’s next match will be at home this Sunday against Stanford at 1 p.m.

Following the road-trip split, Penn State gets to travel back home to Rec Hall for the Penn State Classic. The blue and white will compete against UMBC on Friday night at 7 p.m., followed by Seton Hall on Saturday at 4 p.m.

Top 5 NFL Busts of All-Time

The NFL Draft is an exciting time for all football fans looking for that highly coveted prospect that could completely change the future of their team.

Whether you’re a fan of a team that desperately needs a certain position, or a franchise just looking to fine-tune its depth, the feeling of landing that player you liked in college is a feeling like no other.

But sometimes, that player you really liked in college doesn’t age well at the professional level.

​Today we’re looking at the top five busts of all time.

No. 5 - Charles Rogers, WR, Detroit Lions (2003, No. 3 Overall)

We start off this list with one of the many Detroit Lions blunders. This one comes in the form of Charles Rogers out of Michigan State.

Rogers was superb in his two seasons in college, posting campaigns of 1,200 and 1,351 yards along with 12 and 13 touchdowns, respectively.

Rogers is still Michigan State’s program leader in touchdowns and won the Biletnikoff Award in 2002 for the nation’s top receiver. 

Unfortunately for the Lions, Rogers only mustered three seasons in his professional career with a total of 15 games in that span.

His stats: 36 of 84 targets caught, 440 yards and four touchdowns.

And the thing that stings most: Andre Johnson was selected with the very next pick by the Houston Texans.

No. 4 - Akili Smith, QB, Cincinnati Bengals (1999, No. 3 Overall)

If you think the Lions are bad at drafting, look no further than the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Bengals had a slew of bad selections in the 1990s, and Akili Smith was certainly one of them. Not just for his lackluster play on the field, but for the Bengals refusing a deal from the Saints to trade out of that spot for nine total picks (including a first-round from that year, and the year after that, and the year after that).

But Cincinnati turned it down, and well, the rest is history with Smith’s 3-14 record in just his 17 games with the franchise.

No. 3 - Trent Richardson, RB, Cleveland Browns (2012, No. 3 Overall)

You know we couldn’t go throughout the biggest busts without including the Cleveland Browns.
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Trent Richardson was highly inefficient at Alabama with just 950 rushing yards from 267 carries.

This inefficiency would carry on into the pros where Richardson only mustered 105 yards on 31 attempts before pulling the plug on him.

Richardson would end up playing for the Colts afterward, where his mediocrity continued with 977 yards on 316 carries in 29 games.

No. 2 - Ryan Leaf, QB, Los Angeles Chargers (1998, No. 2 Overall)

Ah yes, the infamous Ryan Leaf pick. You know you’d see it on here.

This draft held discussions over whether Leaf or Peyton Manning would go first overall.

Unfortunately, if you’re a Chargers fan, you lost the coin flip. Badly.

Leaf’s rookie season was abhorrent with only two touchdowns in his 10 starts along with 15 interceptions.

After two years, the Chargers gave up and Leaf went to the Cowboys. Success was still very hard to come by for Leaf in Dallas, and he officially hung up the cleats after that.

No. 1 - JaMarcus Russell, QB, Oakland Raiders (2007, No. 1 Overall Pick)

By no surprise to anybody, JaMarcus Russell is on this list.

Russell had so much hype out of LSU in 2007 that it was insane. This guy was to completely change the landscape of football with his unbelievable athleticism.

Russell would miss his rookie training camp and started just one game that season.

Year 2 would yield better results, but the completion percentage was very low and continued to be low thereafter.

Once Russell started throwing much more interceptions than touchdowns, and infamously commenting on the film he saw on blank tapes, it was time to throw in the towel on the biggest bust in NFL history.

Around the Big East

The Big East Conference had quite a slate of games this weekend, as we continue to trek our way through December for what has already been an interesting college basketball season.

On Saturday, the No. 5 Connecticut Huskies dismantled the Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions by a 101-63 final.

Alex Karaban was magnificent by shooting 9-12 from the field, 6-9 from deep and compiled 26 points with seven rebounds to lead the Huskies to victory.

Connecticut has now won back-to-back games after suffering its only loss to No. 5 Kansas.

A game that I think we anticipated to be a bit closer was between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the No. 8 Marquette Golden Eagles.

Marquette cruised to a 78-59 win, as the Golden Eagles were led by a smooth Oso Ighodaro who posted 20 points on 6-8 shooting and a perfect 8-8 from the charity stripe.

Marquette shot 51.8% from the field as a team, while the Fighting Irish hit 36.5% of their attempts.

The Golden Eagles have reeled off three straight and meet with St. Thomas on Thursday.

Traveling over to Omaha, Nebraska, the Central Michigan Chippewas had a duel with the No. 10 Creighton Blue Jays that saw the home squad pour on a plethora of points in the triumphant final of 109-64. 

Creighton’s leading scorer came off the bench and impressed with 18 points on 6-7 shooting from the floor and 5-6 with buckets from downtown, as Isaac Traudt made a valid point for why he can slide into the starting five.

The Blue Jays’ efficiency was unbelievable by cashing in 65.1% of their shots and holding the Chippewas to just 2-19 from 3-point range.

The Georgetown Hoyas suffered their fourth loss of the season by falling to the Syracuse Orange by an 80-68 score.

Jayden Epps had 17 points in the contest, but struggled with his deep ball by just converting one of his nine attempts. 

The Hoyas are hoping to right the ship after suffering back-to-back losses.

The Butler Bulldogs scraped out a gritty victory in two overtimes against the California Golden Bears, as Posh Alexander and Jahmyl Telfort combined for 41 points to hold off a Golden Bears’ squad that was evidently starving for a win.

The Bulldogs’ 97-90 win puts them at 8-2 on the campaign.

Despite the DePaul Blue Demons having a rough go of things so far this season with a 2-7 record, they were able to collect a 75-68 victory over the Louisville Cardinals. 

Jeremiah Oden’s 22 points put the Blue Demons’ five-game losing streak to rest.

Chico Carter Jr. followed with 14 points.

The Xavier Musketeers also eradicated a losing streak by surmounting the Cincinnati Bearcats by an 84-79 final.

Quincy Olivari looked invincible from beyond the arc and at the foul line, as his 27 points helped the Musketeers find the win column to even their record out at 5-5.

Despite Villanova Wildcats’ basketball not being as potent as in years past, the Wildcats were able to best the UCLA Bruins with 65 points as opposed to the Bruins’ 56.

Tyler Burton had a double-double with 18 points and 10 boards, as Villanova won by a comfortable margin despite shooting 32.8% from the field compared to UCLA striking on 36.7% of its attempts.

And finally, to round off Saturday, the Seton Hall Pirates were beaten by the Rutgers Scarlet Knights with the line reading Rutgers 70, and Seton Hall 63.

Kadary Richmond nearly snatched a double-double with his 21 points and 9 rebounds, as his efforts weren’t quite enough to catch up to the Scarlet Knights.
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There are two games on Sunday, Dec. 10, with Brown facing Providence in Rhode Island for a noon tipoff, and St. John’s playing at Boston College for a 4:30 p.m. start.