| Hall of Fame coach Char Morett captured her 300th win at Penn State with a 5-0 victory over Temple on Sept. 14, 2005. Click here to see large version of photo |
Box Score
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. September 14, 2005 - Penn State field hockey head coach Char Morett led her No. 7 Nittany Lions to a 5-0 victory over Temple on Wednesday, snagging her 300th win at Penn State in the process. Morett, who is in her 19th year as head coach, is now 300-105-8 all-time at the University.
The win improved Penn State's record on the year to 7-1 and extended its win streak to seven games on the year. The string of wins is the longest since 2002, when the team opened the season with seven wins in a row, and eventually advanced to the NCAA National Championship Game.
Annelise Legel (Morgantown, Pa.) scored a hat trick in the game with three goals, all in the first half. Shaun Banta (Gibbsboro, N.J.) and Natalie Blasco (Marysville, Pa.) also scored.
Legel, who now has six goals on the year, scored first at the 7:41 mark on an unassisted play. She followed that score with one just over three minutes later when she took a pass from Natalie Berrena (State College, Pa.) to put Penn State up, 2-0. The assist was Berrena's first of the year. At the 19:53 mark Banta scored her fifth goal of the year and first of the game to give Penn State a 3-0 edge. Last year's Big Ten Freshman of the Year Kiersten Wood (Lititz, Pa.) got the ball to Legel at the 27:14 mark, who put Penn State up, 4-0, at the break. Wood leads the team with four assists this season.
Penn State tallied 16 shots in the game, and only allowed three by the Owls, and none in the first half. The Nittany Lions also held a 14-2 advantage on penalty corners. Senior goalkeeper Megan Akstin (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) recorded her third shutout on the year, and tallied one save in the contest.
Morett has built Penn State's field hockey team into one of the University's most successful programs. The hall of fame coach has led her Lions to three Big Ten titles, four Big Ten Tournament championships, four NCAA National Semifinal appearances and one trip to the NCAA National Championship game. She has coached 21 different All-Americans and five Big Ten Players of the Year. Morett has snagged Big Ten Coach of the Year honors twice, and been selected as the Mideast Coach of the Year four times in her career. Her 337 wins in her career, which includes three years at Boston College, ranks fourth all-time among Division I coaches.
She inherited a program in 1987 that had posted double-digit victories in each of its last eight seasons, and she has kept that streak alive. Penn State now has 27-straight double-digit win seasons, the longest ever streak in Division I field hockey history. Morett was also on the sideline when the Nittany Lions ended national powerhouse Old Dominion's streak of 66-straight wins with a 2-1 win at ODU in 1993.
Morett also found success in the blue and white as a student-athlete. She competed for Penn State from 1975-78 under fellow Hall of Famer Gillian Rattray, and is the only three-time All-American in the program's history. She ranks No. 8 in school history in goals with 50, and holds the single-game record with five.
Morett and the Nittany Lions head to Lafayette on Friday for a 7 p.m. matchup before returning home for a 2 p.m. game vs. West Chester. There will be a ceremony before the contest to honor Morett for her accomplishments at Penn State. Admission to all games at Astroturf Field is free.