Oct. 28, 2008
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Senior goalkeeper Jen Beaumont, this week's Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week, was honored as Division I's National Player of the Week by womensfieldhockey.com after her outstanding performance in goal this weekend produced multiple shutouts as the No. 8 Penn State field hockey team clinched its fifth regular season Big Ten title.
Beaumont shut out Indiana and Michigan this weekend, leading the Nittany Lions to their fifth regular season conference championship and first since 1995.
The Chalfont, Pa. native recorded nine saves against Michigan on Sunday, including a glove save off a penalty shot. She also made three consecutive saves in 12 seconds for the Nittany Lions. The senior goalkeeper made one save to preserve a 1-0 shutout over Indiana on Friday.
On the national level, the senior goalkeeper leads Division I with an 83.1 save percentage. She has the third-best goals-against average, allowing just .94 goals per game. Along with teammate Ali Meves, the Nittany Lion goalkeeping corps is tied with James Madison and Ohio State for most shutouts this season.
During conference play, Beaumont has a 0.21 goals-against average and saved 95.7 percent of shots faced. She has six individual shutouts, excluding three combined blanks, this season. As it currently stands, Beaumont's 2008 Big Ten season is second-best all-time in save percentage and goals allowed per game.
Beaumont's laurel is the third time in program history that a Nittany Lion player was named National Player of the Week by womensfieldhockey.com. Allison Scola received the same honor two weeks ago.
Womensfieldhockey.com is an independent Web site devoted to amateur and collegiate field hockey. It produces its own ranking system, which has the Nittany Lions pegged as the sixth-best team in the nation.
Penn State caps its regular season with a trip to No. 10 Michigan State before competing in the Big Ten Championships in Bloomington, Ind.