Today in Penn State sports: Nov. 10, 2017
Wrapping up Friday’s Penn State sports action that doesn’t appear elsewhere in the CDT:
Women’s basketball
Fast start lifts Lady Lions to season-opening win
The Penn State women’s basketball team blazed to a fast start to the season Friday night at the Bryce Jordan Center.
The Lady Lions built a huge lead by halftime and followed the lead of four double-digit scorers for an 86-72 win over Siena.
Amari Carter led the way with 19 points, six rebounds and five assists and Siyeh Frazier added 14 points, eight steals and six assists. Jaida Travascio-Green also netted 14 points and Jaylen Williams tossed in 10. De’Janae Boykin pulled down nine rebounds.
The Lady Lions never trailed, but held a slim 17-16 lead with 1:21 left in the first quarter. They promptly blasted off on a 32-6 run to hold a 49-22 advantage at halftime.
Penn State hosts Drexel on Sunday afternoon.
Cross country
PSU wins regional, heads to NCAA finals
BETHLEHEM Penn State won the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional for a third consecutive year, making the NCAA Championships, on Friday afternoon at Lehigh.
The Nittany Lions dominated with five of the top 10 runners for 29 points, well ahead of runner-up Villanova’s 60. The Penn State men finished fifth with 125 points.
Pacing the Nittany Lion women was Jillian Hunsberger’s second-place showing of 20 minutes, 5.4 seconds over 6 kilometers. She was followed by Alison Willingmyre (fifth), Kathryn Munks (sixth), Danae Rivers (eighth) and Greta Lindsley (10th). State College graduate Victoria Crawford was 88th in 21:56.6.
The Nittany Lion men were paced by Tim McGowan in sixth (30:40.1) and Colin Albert (ninth) over 10 kilometers. Rounding out the scoring five were John McGowan (20th), Andrew Sell (43rd) and Bobby Hill (53rd).
The national championship meet will be held in Louisville, Ky., on Nov. 18.
Women’s hockey
Orange blank Nittany Lions
SYRACUSE, N.Y. A pair of first-period goals gave Syracuse a comfortable advantage on its way to a 3-0 victory over Penn State.
Stephanie Grossi netted both first-period tallies. Megan Quinn added a power-play goal in the third as the Orange (2-7-1) outshot Penn State 27-14.
Daniela Paniccia made 24 saves for the Nittany Lions (2-7-4). Abby Miller’s 14 saves wrapped up the shutout.
Baseball
Nittany Lions sign 8
UNIVERSITY PARK Seven high school seniors signed National Letters of Intent and another will transfer to Penn State, the Nittany Lions announced for the early signing period this week.
Left-handed pitcher Joe Baran will join the Nittany Lions after two seasons at Stony Brook. He had a 1-1 record and 3.74 ERA for the Seawolves in 2016, and took a medical redshirt season in 2017. His sister is a Penn State student, and the Hazleton native is the cousin of Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon.
Also committing to the Nittany Lions are three other Pennsylvania natives with infielder Justin Williams of Cumberland Valley High School, catcher Cole Chesnet of Coatesville and Archbishop Carroll, and left-handed pitcher Hutch Gagnon of Downingtown East.
The signing class also includes infielders Ryan Ford of Freehold, N.J., and Isaiah Payton of Newark, Del., and right-handed pitcher Tyler Shingledecker of Huntersville, N.C.
This story was originally published November 11, 2017 at 12:04 AM with the headline "Today in Penn State sports: Nov. 10, 2017."