Sept. 13, 2007
West Chester and North Carolina Game Notes
University Park, Pa. - The Penn State field hockey team will wrap up its three-game homestand and begin a two-game road swing this weekend. First, the seventh-ranked Nittany Lions will host West Chester in what is the longest-running series in school history on Friday night at 6:00 p.m. on AstroTurf Field. Then, Penn State will travel to North Carolina on Sunday to face the top-ranked Tar Heels at 1:00 p.m. The game will be the first for Penn State against a No. 1 ranked team since the 2002 season.
This year will mark the 43rd straight year that Penn State and West Chester have met on the field hockey pitch. The teams have met every year but one of Penn State field hockey's existence, that being the first year in 1964. While West Chester held the upper hand in the early years of the series, winning 12 of the first 14 matchups from 1965-77, the Nittany Lions have been the dominant team as of late, winning the last 19 meetings and 26 of the last 27 contests with the Golden Rams. West Chester, a member of the Atlantic 10 in field hockey, enters Friday's game with a 3-2 record.
North Carolina, which is 6-0 entering Friday's game with Old Dominion, moved into the top spot in the STX/NFHCA top 20 poll this week. They have defeated four teams this year that Penn State has played or will play this year in Iowa, Michigan, James Madison and West Chester. Penn State has won the last two meetings over the Tar Heels, both last year. During hte regular season, Penn State topped UNC 2-1 at home in mid-October. Then, in an exciting first round NCAA Tournament game, the Nittany Lions rallied from a 3-1 deficit to top the Tar Heels 4-3 in a game played in College Park, Md. in November. Penn State has also won three of its last four games against ACC opponents, as it also topped Virginia earlier this year.
The Nittany Lions are coming off a 2-0 victory over Temple on Wednesday in which Mallory Weisen scored a pair of goals. She became the second Nittany Lion to record her first career multiple-goal game this year, joining Britney Long, who had two goals against Princeton last Wednesday. Meanwhile, on the defensive end, goalkeeper Jen Beaumont has played 223:37 straight without allowing a goal, the second-longest scoreless streak of her career.
Following this weekend's games, the Nittany Lions will take next week off before returning to action a week from Sunday at Michigan in their Big Ten opener.