Sports

B6 Centre Daily Times, Sunday, September 20, 2015

www.centredaily.com

Mounties, Tigers battle to tie Nittany Lions

From CDT staff reports

HOLLIDAYSBURG Seven firsthalf goals highlighted a chaotic meeting between Philipsburg-Osceola boys
soccer and Hollidaysburg, which ended in a 4-4 draw on Saturday.
The Mounties dominated early, putting away three goals in the first 11 minutes of the game.
In the sixth minute, P-Os Curtis
Rowles took a free kick from 40 yards
out that bounced high and fell under
the bar for the game-opening score.
P-O scored less than a minute later
on an empty net after freshman Ulysses Saldana dispossessed the goalkeeper.
At the 16:11 mark, Mounties defender Nate Kristofits connected with Austin Krise, springing the striker free for
a 50-yard breakaway score.
Momentum shifted later in the half,
though, as Hollidaysburg tallied four
straight goals before the break.
P-O converted the game-tying goal
four minutes into the second half when
Tony Cassler scored off a Krise throwin.
The Mounties next game is Tuesday at Central.

SCHOLASTIC DIGEST
The Wolves improved to 1-4 on the
year. Their next game is Monday at
home against Blairsville.

GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY

Lady Wolves finish third

ALTOONA Led by two top-10 finishers, St. Josephs Catholic Academy
finished third at the Altoona Mountain
Lion Invitational on Saturday.
Out of 20 participating teams, Oakland Catholic placed first with an overall score of 39. Somerset paced itself to
second place with an 82, and St. Josephs was close behind with an 83.
St. Josephs performance was highlighted by Sera Mazza, whose 20:29.28
time was good for third. Lucia Person
bolstered the Lady Wolves, as well,
with a seventh place finish (20:52.43).
They were followed by Julia Cusatis
(14th, 21:25.99), Jordan Wiser (31st,
22:11.29), Lea Fisher (33rd, 22:21.44),
Grace Cousins (37th, 22:29.72) and
Lindsey Carmack (45th, 23:08.69).
Somersets Jane Woy earned top individual honors with a time of 20:17.50.

GIRLS VOLLEYBALL
BOYS CROSS COUNTRY

Saint Josephs earns first win

LITITZ Saint Josephs Catholic
Academy earned its first win of the season, beating Linden Hall, 3-0 (25-6,
27-25, 25-11), on Saturday.
Saint Josephs was led by Kaitie
Kochers seven aces.

St. Josephs, P-O compete

ALTOONA St. Josephs Catholic
Academy and Philipsburg-Osceola finished seventh and 17th, respectively, at
Saturdays Altoona Mountain Lion Invitational.

Altoona led the pack with a 38, followed by Bedfords 167 and Kiski
Preps 169.
William Kachman from Bedford was
the individual winner with a time of
16:27.07, and second place belonged to
his teammate, Zane Baker (16:45.24).
St. Josephs leader was Eli Urban,
who placed 17th with a time of 18:02.98.
He was followed by Michael Peters
(28th, 18:28.67), Kaelan Wright (43rd,
19:09.89), Andy Rogan (65th, 19:54.45),
Ethan Fisher (82nd, 20:29.08), Nathan
Mellace (86th, 20:36.62) and Max
Wortman (140th, 23:20.70).
Meanwhile, Nick Patricks time of
18:11.60 was good for 21st and led P-O.
The Mounties also had contributions
from Matthew Shimmel (66th,
19:55.19), Michael Shimmel (87th,
20:37.76), Jacob Maines (110th,
21:14.45) and Dane Soltys (117th,
21:27.17).

FIELD HOCKEY

State College edges Chambersburg

CHAMBERSBURG Two goals
from Mini Kifolo propelled State College to a 2-0 win over Chambersburg
on Friday.
Kifolo scored first at the 4:25 mark,
assisted by Emily Allegar. She finished
a second look on goal at the 12:26 mark
with Kelsey Love earning the assist.
State College outshot Chambersburg 6-2 and had eight penalty corners.
The Lady Little Lions are now 5-1
overall on the season, and 4-1 in Mid
Penn play.

Cardinals first to clinch playoff spot

The Associated Press

CHICAGO The St.

Louis Cardinals became the
first team to clinch a playoff
berth this year despite losing 5-4 to the Chicago Cubs
on Saturday.
San Franciscos loss to Arizona ensured the Cardinals
at least an NL wild card.
St. Louis has the best record in the majors at 92-56
and will play in the postseason for the fifth straight year.
The Cardinals have made it
at least to the NL Championship Series the last four seasons.

Braves 2, Phillies 1
ATLANTA Freddie
Freeman hit a two-run double in the eighth inning and
the Atlanta Braves rallied
past the Philadelphia Phillies
2-1 on Saturday night.
In a matchup of the two
worst teams in the majors,
the Braves have consecutive
victories for the first time
since winning three straight
over Miami from Aug. 6-8.
The Phillies have dropped
five straight and 13 of 16.

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL ROUNDUP

Nationals 5, Marlins 2
WASHINGTON Bryce
Harper tied the game with a
sacrifice fly, then added insurance with his 41st homer
a two-run shot into the
second deck in right field
that earned M-V-P! chants
and Washington came
back to beat Miami.
Harper entered the day
leading the NL in homers,
batting average and runs.
His three RBIs raised his total to 95, putting him 17 behind Colorados Nolan Arenado.

Diamondbacks 6,
Giants 0
SAN FRANCISCO Patrick Corbin pitched seven
sharp innings and helped his
own cause with an RBI single as Arizona blanked San
Francisco.
Ender Inciarte had three
hits and two RBIs, while David Peralta and A.J. Pollock
added three hits apiece for
Arizona. The Diamondbacks
have won four of their last
five against the defending

World Series champs, and

five straight at AT&T Park.

INTERLEAGUE

Yankees 5, Mets 0
NEW YORK Carlos
Beltran hit a three-run
homer on a 100 mph fastball
from Noah Syndergaard in
the first inning, Michael
Pineda pitched his best
game in two months and the
New York Yankees beat the
Mets to rebound from an
opening loss in the Subway
Series.
Brian McCann added a
two-run drive in the sixth,
the Yankees 200th home
run this season, to quiet the
sellout crowd of 43,630 at Citi Field.

AMERICAN
LEAGUE

Red Sox 7, Blue Jays 6

TORONTO David Ortiz singled home the goahead run in a five-run ninth

inning and Boston rallied to

beat Toronto.
Jackie Bradley Jr. snapped
an 0-for-21 slump with a tying
double in the seventh, then
tied it again with a two-run
homer off Roberto Osuna
(1-5) in the ninth.

Angels 4, Twins 3 (12)

MINNEAPOLIS Kole
Calhoun drove in the tiebreaking run in the 12th inning, and Los Angeles held
off Minnesota in the first
game of a day-night doubleheader.
Twins shortstop Eduardo
Escobar knocked down Kole
Calhouns liner in the 12th
and tried to get Dan Robertson at the plate, but the
throw was late.

Orioles 2, Rays 1
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.
Wei-Yin Chen pitched seven effective innings, Adam
Jones drove in two runs and
Baltimore beat Tampa Bay.
Chen (10-7) allowed one
run and struck out seven. He
ended his outing by escaping a two-on, no-out jam.

Busch gives JGR Xfinity Series win

The Associated Press

JOLIET, Ill. Joe Gibbs Racing

grabbed its first victory of the weekend
when Kyle Busch won the Xfinity Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.
It was a rout Saturday night by JGR
drivers Busch and Matt Kenseth, who
combined to lead 186 of the 200 laps.
The two then dueled over the closing
laps, with Kenseth sliding past Busch
for the lead with two laps remaining,
only for Busch to snatch the lead right
back.
It was Buschs record 74th career victory in the Xfinity Series.
It was JGRs seventh win in the last 14

AUTO RACING ROUNDUP

Xfinity Series races, and the organization heads into Sundays opening round
of NASCARs playoffs with eight wins in
the last 11 Sprint Cup events.
All four of JGRs drivers are in the Chase
for the Sprint Cup championship field.

Nemechek earns first Trucks victory

JOLIET, Ill. John Hunter Nemechek has grabbed his first career victory by capitalizing in the Truck Series
race at Chicagoland Speedway when
others didnt have the fuel to make it to
the finish.

The second-generation NASCAR

driver was running second behind Kyle
Larson when Larson ran out of gas two
laps from the finish. With Larson coasting on the bottom of the track, Nemechek cruised past him to grab his first
national series victory.
Nemechek turned 18 in June and
drives for a team fielded by his father,
journeyman Joe Nemechek.
Tyler Reddick finished second and
was followed by Timothy Peters and
Daniel Suarez. Johnny Sauter was fifth,
points leader Erik Jones was sixth and
Kyle Larson faded to seventh after dominating the race.

Chase begins at Chicagoland Speedway

Chase, continued from B3

lap. His average finish is 16.7 through

the first 26 races.
But he is teammates at Richard Childress Racing with Newman, and that
organization proved last year it can
game a system that was supposed to reward winning.
Im not going to change how I race,
said Menard. This has gotten us to this
point. We just need to step it up a little
bit. Well all fight tooth and nail.

Practice patience
Denny Hamlin knows exactly what
he needs to do Sunday, and he isnt sure
how easy itll be at the start of the race.
His Joe Gibbs Racing team struggled
in Fridays only practice session, and
when qualifying was washed out by
rain, their poor showing earned them
the 29th starting position the lowest
of the 16 Chase drivers.
He believes his first task will be staying out of trouble at the start of the race
as he tries to pick his way through traffic.
Ive got to be careful, first of all, he
said Saturday. It is 400 miles, so the
goal is dont get too anxious when they
tell me the leader is on the same
straightaway as I am. I think thats going to happen.
Ive got to just rely on the car to do
its thing, its been really fast here lately.
I think just being patient and not getting too caught up in the first part of the

race is my biggest challenge.

Hamlin said the issues with the No.
11 team began when they switched into
qualifying trim Friday and discovered
something amiss with his Toyota. It
took too much time to fix the issues,
and he never got in a fast lap that would
have stood for seeding the field once
qualifying was canceled.
We got behind, we found something
wrong with the car that was causing us
to be behind, he said. I felt like we
were really fast in race trim. We
switched things over and had some
things wrong with the car and just
couldnt get it identified until too late.
It was just a bad effort by me and the
team, just not getting a decent lap.

Restarts to be addressed
NASCAR will explain to drivers in the
pre-race meeting about its restart policy during the Chase.
Drivers have complained about a
lack of consistency on the policy and
that NASCAR has not intervened when
drivers have gone too early on recent
restarts. The most recent gripe came
on the final restart last weekend at
Richmond, where many believed Matt
Kenseth jumped the start and shed
Joey Logano to pull away for the win.
NASCAR made no call against Kenseth, and drivers this week have called
on the sanctioning body to take a
stance.
NASCAR apparently plans to both reposition some at-track cameras to give

the officials in the tower a better look at

restarts, and there will be a dedicated
official who will monitor the restart
zone area.

Hendrick spies
Its no secret Hendrick Motorsports
is lagging behind some of the championship competitors, but the organization isnt conceding its title chances.
In fact, four-time series champion
Jeff Gordon said Hendrick officials are
scouring the garage to determine
where the team is lacking.
You know what youve got to do to
make your car better. How you do it is
another challenge, and you learn from
your competitors, Gordon said. We
have spies everywhere. We constantly
are looking at our competitors.
Six-time champion Jimmie Johnson
scoffed at the idea Hendrick was using
actual spies, and pointed out its very
easy to see what other teams are doing
during the course of a day in the garage.
When we park next to each other,
everyone is looking at each others
cars, and you can see things, Johnson
said. The photos we receive during
practice, you can see the attitude of the
car, and how low it is, and speculate on
springs and stuff going on, but it takes
so many small details to separate yourself and find an advantage.
I know our guys are digging deep,
and Im not sure if its been the spying
aspect.

streak moves
to 31 straight
match wins
From CDT staff report

TAMPA, Fla. The nations top-ranked womens

volleyball team ran its win
streak to 31 straight matches with two sweeps on Saturday.
Penn State swept past
South Florida 25-19, 25-6,
25-18 in the USF Invitational
to close the night.
The No. 1 Nittany Lions
(11-0) closed out its nonconference schedule with a
3-0 sweep in every match,
extending the two-time defending national champions run to 38 straight
sets won.
Aiyana Whitney paced
the offense with 15 kills on
.481 hitting, while Haleigh
Washington added 10 kills
on .750 hitting. As a team
the Nittany Lions hit .409.
Bryanna
Weiskircher
gave out 32 assists to go
with 15 digs, Keeton Holcomb added 10 digs, Heidi
Thelen had five blocks and
Megan Courtney posted
four stuffs.
The Nittany Lions won
the blocking battle 8-2,
holding the Bulls to .062 hitting.
Earlier Saturday, Penn
State used a huge blocking
advantage to sweep St.
Johns 25-10, 25-18, 25-19.
Washington led the 15-3
blocking advantage with a
career-high 11 stuffs, the
second-highest game total
for a Nittany Lion in a threeset match.
Whitney paced the of-

PSU DIGEST
fense with 11 kills on .500
hitting, adding four blocks.
Ali Frantti notched eight
kills, Courtney had 10 digs
and five blocks and Weiskircher posted 31 assists
and four blocks.
Penn State hit .377, held
the Red Storm to .071 hitting and led in aces 7-1.
The Nittany Lions start
its Big Ten schedule
Wednesday, hosting No. 11
Wisconsin at Rec Hall.

FIELD HOCKEY

Nittany Lions take

down Kent State
ANN ARBOR, Mich.
Penn State snagged its
third win of the season, toppling Kent State, 2-1, at
Phyllis Ocker Field on Saturday.
The No. 18 Nittany Lions
(3-4, 0-1 Big Ten) scored
early as Aurelia Meijer tallied a goal 14:57 into the first
half.
Later in the first period,
Kirsten Gochnauer tallied a
goal from the left side of the
circle. She was assisted by
Carly Celkos.
Kent State netted one
with 6:41 left in the game,
but couldnt muster a gametying score.
The Nittany Lions totaled
12 shots, five penalty corners and seven saves.
Penn State returns home
on Friday to face Michigan
State.

Whitney refines
game to become
better player
Volleyball, continued from B3

she hasnt always played,

and she faced many emotional crossroads as a Nittany Lion. Ultimately, her
commitment to the program and belief in her ability drove her to finally come
into her own.
The process wasnt easy.
After high school when
everyone in her region
knew her name, Whitney
walked onto the court for
her first preseason practice
her freshman year and
quickly realized that none
of that mattered.
You get here and everyone is just as good, if not
better, she said.
Whitney called her first
preseason camp one of the
most mentally and physically distressing times of
her life. She recalled a practice where players had to
run suicide drills for every
ball they went for with one
arm; by the end of the drill
the team had to run more
than Whitney ever had to
run before.
I just remember my
teammates having to be,
like, Aiyana, you can do
this, and it was of my most
crossroad moments, she
said. It was either I suck it
up and I figure out a way to
get through these sprints,
or Im just going to leave
the gym now. I think that
was kind of a turning point
for me. It was like this is the
real deal, this is serious.
Whitney said nothing
can prepare you for the
change from high school to
college sports and that the
program is not for everyone. But she had to believe
that volleyball was what
she was meant to do, and
she credits her ability to believe in herself for getting
though her first preseason.
If you dont believe you
can do it, then you really
cant, she said. Its about
finding your confidence,
its about pushing yourself
harder than youve ever
pushed yourself.
Whitney saw some action her freshman season
but redshirted her sophomore year to grow as a play-

er. After taking a full season

off, she played in 21 matches and had three starts but
still wasnt seeing a lot of
playing time.
I think Aiyana has been
a terrific player for a number of years, but she flew
under the radar maybe
with some other people,
coach Russ Rose said.
After those first two seasons and her ups and down,
Whitney said there was a
point her redshirt junior
year where she had to
make a decision on how far
she would push herself
she wasnt going to play in
shadows anymore.
I think that the commitment I made to myself,
when I made the commitment to play here, was that
I wasnt going to sink, she
said. I wasnt going to
come here and just be one
of those players that never
really amounted to their full
potential or you never really heard anything from.
She told herself that she
was better than how she
was performing and better
than what she was allowing
herself to be. It pushed her
to have her breakout season in 2014, and people noticed.
She was invited to participate in the Big Ten Foreign Tour in June. Over
nearly two weeks, players
traveled to Slovenia, Croatia and Italy to compete,
participate in community
service activities and enjoy
some of the worlds great
cities. The team played seven matches and held a volleyball clinic.
Whitney said the experience was especially eyeopening for her since one of
her aspirations is to play
professionally and abroad.
In her fifth and final season, Whitney isnt taking
one second on the court for
granted.
Its really rewarding to
have the role that I have
now, Whitney said. Its
just something that I have
really been trying to embrace.
Jennifer Meyers is a Penn
State journalism student.