Nov. 13, 2010
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State men's soccer team will vie for the program's fourth conference crown on Sunday afternoon when it clashes with Michigan (13-4-3) in the championship game of the 2010 Big Ten Tournament. The title contest, which is scheduled for a 12 p.m. start at Jeffrey Field, will be broadcast live by the Big Ten Network.
Tickets for the showdown between the Big Ten's top two scoring teams are $8 for adults and $5 for students and groups.
Fourth-seeded Penn State (13-6-1) downed No. 5 seed Northwestern, 3-1, and upset conference regular season champion and No. 1 seed Indiana, 2-1, to advance to the Big Ten title match for the second consecutive year and for the 11th time in program history.
Versus the Wildcats, the Nittany Lions rallied from a one-goal deficit, scoring three goals, including two by unanimous First Team All-Big Ten forward Corey Hertzog (Reading, Pa.), in the game's final 16-plus minutes to secure the win and up their all-time Big Ten Tournament first round record to 16-3-1. In the victory, senior midfielder Matheus Braga (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) broke the Penn State single season assists record by registering two, giving him 14 for the year.
In its semifinal match-up with Indiana, Penn State avenged a bitter, last-second regular season defeat, getting goals from Hertzog, his Big Ten-leading 17th of the year, and junior midfielder Justin Lee (Derwood, Md.) to dispatch the Hoosiers.
Michigan, the tournament's fifth seed, defeated in-state rival Michigan State, 2-1, in the first round, and edged Wisconsin, 1-0, in the semifinals to reach the Big Ten final for the second time in the 11-year history of the program. Big Ten Freshman of the Year Soony Saad has fueled the Wolverines' run, scoring two of their three goals.
Penn State owns a 3-0 record versus Michigan in Big Ten Tournament games. In 2000, the Wolverine program's inaugural season, the Nittany Lions prevailed 2-1 in double overtime. Penn State also downed Michigan 2-1 in the 2002 title match, the last time Happy Valley was the host site of the tournament. Last season, Patrick Krispin (The Woodlands, Texas) netted his first career goal to lift the Lions to a thrilling, double overtime victory in the first round of the 2009 tournament.
Overall, Penn State is 9-4-1 in its all-time series with Michigan. In the teams' 2010 regular season meeting, the Nittany Lions limited the Wolverines to just six total shots but fell, 2-1, in Ann Arbor, suffering their first road loss of the year. Hertzog scored his 10th goal of the season while Michigan's top scorer, Soony Saad, was held without a single shot.
In the 19-year history of the Big Ten Tournament, the host team has won the title six times, including Penn State in 2002. The No. 4 seed has claimed the Big Ten Tournament championship only twice - Penn State in 1993 and 2002.