Lions claim another soccer title

UNIVERSITY PARK — The Penn State women’s soccer team won its 12th straight Big Ten title and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament on Friday when Ohio State dropped a 1-0 game to Michigan State.

Director of athletics Tim Curley and associate director of athletics Susan Delaney-Scheetz were on hand at the team’s facility to present the team with the Big Ten trophy.

The 12th-straight title puts the No. 22 Nittany Lions (11-5-2, 7-1-1 Big Ten) in some elite territory, joining the Michigan swimming and diving team of the late 1990s as only other Big Ten women’s squad to reach a dozen consecutive conference crowns. The Nittany Lions also earned their 14th-straight NCAA tournament berth with the automatic bid for winning the Big Ten.

Men’s soccer

Nittany Lions drop finale to Hoosiers

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Penn State lost the ability to control its own destiny in the race for the Big Ten regular season title with a 2-1 loss to Indiana on Friday.

The No. 25 Nittany Lions (10-6-2, 3-2-1 Big Ten) can claim their first conference crown in four seasons and the conference tournament’s top seed with a Michigan win over Ohio State and a Michigan State victory over Northwestern today.

Matheus Braga accounted for Penn State’s lone score against the Hoosiers 20 minutes into the first half, netting his seventh goal of the season. Corey Hertzog recorded his team-high sixth assist of the year on the play.

The Hoosiers answered with Will Bruins’ score in the 39th minute and got the game-winner from Danny Kelly 40 seconds into the second half.

Field hockey

PSU falls in semis

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Penn State got the tying goal midway through the first half only to give up two second-half scores in a 3-1 loss to Indiana in the Big Ten tournament semifinals Friday.

The Hoosiers will face Michigan State in the conference title match as Penn State ended its season at 7-13.

Indiana grabbed a 1-0 lead less than five minutes into the game with Morgan Fleetwood’s goal. Penn State’s Kelsey Amy tied the game with her third goal of the tournament at 21:46.

The teams battled with superb defense over the next 20 minutes before Brooke Borneman scored the game-winner 13 minutes into the second half. Corey Brautigam added an insurance goal for the Hoosiers off a penalty corner at the 52-minute mark.

Women’s volleyball

Penn State sweeps Wisconsin

MADISON, Wisc. — Penn State extended its NCAA-record win streak to 89 matches with a 25-15, 25-13, 25-21 sweep of Wisconsin on Friday night.

Megan Hodge paced the offense with 13 kills while Darcy Dorton and Blair Brown each added eight. With her total, Hodge passed Nicole Fawcett for second place on the program’s career kills list with 1,950. Fawcett finished last season with 1,943. Lori Barberich holds the school record with 2,282.

Arielle Wilson posted six kills, eight blocks and two aces, Alisha Glass gave out 31 assists, Alyssa D’Errico recorded 12 digs and Cathy Quilico contributed eight digs.

The Nittany Lions (25-0, 13-0 Big Ten) hit .287 for the night, the lowest mark of the season for the nation’s leading hitting team. They entered the night hitting .412 and had a previous match-low of .322 against St. Louis. Penn State, which visits Iowa tonight, also out-blocked the Badgers 12-6.

Women’s tennis

McCarthy, Simidian post wins for PSU

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — On the first day of play at the Purdue Invitational, Penn State’s Lauren McCarthy and Amy Simidian each picked up two wins.

McCarthy beat Michigan State’s Whitney Wilson 6-2, 7-5 and Simidian dropped the Spartans’ Amy Barton 7-6 (2), 6-1. In doubles, Simidian and McCarthy lost to Wilson and Barton 8-1.

Kristen Roth and Maria Prishlyak fell to Michigan State’s Nicole Herzog and Elena Ivanova 8-6 in doubles. Roth then lost to Ivanova 6-4, 6-0 and Allie Hefter fell to Christine Miliken 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3).

Against Marquette, Simidian and McCarthy dropped their match to Rachael Hush and Christina Ruiz 8-5 and Sarah Henderson and Prishlyak lost to Olga Fischer and Paola Calderon 8-3, while Gillian Hush and Maggie Wilson topped Roth and Hefter 8-1.