Oct. 30, 2007
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Men's tennis' Michael James (Clifton, Va) and women's soccer's Carly Bedesem (Holland, Pa.) have been named this week's Penn State Student-Athletes of the Week. James won his first collegiate singles crown at the ITA Northeast Regional Championship singles draw and Bedesem held an integral role in both of this weekend's Nittany Lion wins coming down the stretch.
James capped a run through the ITA Northeast Regional Championship singles draw with a dominating 6-1, 6-0 victory in the tournament finals to claim his first collegiate singles crown. The Nittany Lion senior went 6-0 in the 128-player singles draw to boost his fall record to 14-3.
Ranked 35th in the country, James garnered a berth into the ITA National Collegiate Indoor Men's Singles Championships, which features 32 of the nation's elite players in Columbus from Nov. 1-4.
Bedesem gave an outstanding performance for the No. 13 Nittany Lions this weekend against both No. 4 Purdue and Indiana. The senior midfielder assisted on all three of this weekend's goals.
In the final 10 minutes of Friday's game against Purdue, Bedesem had the helper on Aubrey Aden-Buie's (Allentown, Pa.) game-winning goal. On Sunday, Senior Day, vs. Indiana, she not only found Katie Schoepfer (Waterford, Conn.) in front of the goal once, putting the Hoosier defense on its heels, but was able to help find Schoepfer again for the game-winner in the second half.
Bedesem's three assists on the weekend more then doubled her total for the year, bringing her total to five. With these two wins, the Nittany Lions are back to first place in the standings in their race for a 10th straight Big Ten title.
2007 Penn State Student-Athletes of the Week
October 29 - Michael James (men's tennis), Carly Bedesem (women's soccer)
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--