Oct. 22, 2007
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Football's Maurice Evans (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and women's volleyball's Christa Harmotto (Aliquippa, Pa.) have been named this week's Penn State Student-Athletes of the Week. Evans made career-highs with 3.5 sacks, 4.5 TFL, and two forced fumbles in the Nittany Lion's 36-31 victory over Indiana and Harmotto aided in capturing two crucial road wins for Penn State to remain undefeated in the Big Ten.
The Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week, Evans delivered a sensational performance at defensive end in the game at Indiana this past Saturday. He had 3.5 sacks for minus 36 yards, 4.5 TFL for minus 38 yards, and two forced fumbles.
Evans made the play of the game in the third quarter with Indiana University at the Penn State 19 and trailing 23-17. Evans sacked Kellen Lewis, forcing a fumble at the Penn State 32, which he picked up and returned 55 yards to the Indiana 13. Kevin Kelly (Langhorne, Pa.) made a 21-yard field goal for a 26-17 lead.
The sophomore's second forced fumble occurred on Indiana's next possession when he grabbed Lewis' jersey and swung him, forcing a fumble that Phil Taylor recovered at the Indiana 7. Kelly ended the Nittany Lion recovery with a 20-yard field goal to push the lead to 29-17 with 12:30 to play.
Evans is No. 2 in the nation in sacks and No. 3 in TFL. His season TFL total (18.5) is the most for a Penn State player since Michael Haynes posted 23 in 2002. Evans was awarded a "Helmet Sticker" by the ESPB college football studio crew.
On Friday night at Illinois, female student-athlete of the week Harmotto, recorded 11 kills on .400 hitting with only one error. She provided a season-high 12 blocks, which also set a new five-game rally-scoring-era blocking record that was ultimately broken in the same match by sophomore Alisha Glass (Leland, Mich.) with 14 blocks.
On Sunday in a match against fellow undefeated Big 10 team Wisconsin, the junior racked up 16 kills without an error to hit .444, also adding a match-high six blocks, including two solo efforts.
For the weekend, Harmotto averaged 2.70 kills per game on .426 hitting with 18 total blocks for an average of 1.8 blocks per game.
2007 Penn State Student-Athletes of the Week
October 22 - Maurice Evans (football), Christa Harmotto (women's volleyball)
October 15 - Sean Lee (football), Zoe Bouchelle (women's soccer)
October 8- Kevin Foley (men's golf), Mallory Weisen (field hockey)
October 1- Vincent Salvatico (men's soccer), Katie Schoepfer (women's soccer)
September 24- T.J. Howe (men's golf), Alyssa Naeher (women's soccer)
September 17- Brendan Lynch (men's tennis), Katie Schoepfer (women's soccer)
September 10- Dan Connor (football), Megan Hodge (women's volleyball)
September 3- Anthony Morelli (football), Bridget Franek (cross country)
August 27- Kiersten Wood (field hockey)
--NITTANY LIONS--