Sept. 26, 2014 UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -
By Matt Allibone, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- Life on the road is nothing new to the Penn State men's soccer team. Playing in the Big Ten, the Nittany Lions frequently travel long distances and this weekend will be no different. Head Coach Bob Warming and crew will trek about 390 miles (approximately a six hour drive) from State College to Ann Arbor to take on Michigan on Sunday at 1 p.m.
"We bus, we don't fly," Warming said. "The big thing for us is mental regeneration and doing some things the next couple of days and doing some yoga on the trip to stretch out and prepare ourselves."
The Wolverines are just 1-3-2 on the season, but that doesn't mean that Warming believes his team can just roll off the bus and beat their conference rivals without being properly prepared.
"It ain't easy," Warming said of the upcoming trip.
Still, the Nittany Lions are feeling good going into the contest with a 7-0-1 record. They are also coming off their highest scoring performance in 15 years, a 6-2 win over Penn on Wednesday.
Records aside, the game will still be a battle the way every game in the Big Ten is. Having graduated just three starters from last year's 8-7-3 team, the Wolverines have plenty of experience and will have their eyes set on the Nittany Lions after losing to them 3-1 last season.
Last season's leading scorer junior James Murphy (four goals, 11 points in 2013) and starting goalkeeper senior Adam Grinwis have both returned this season, giving Michigan a solid foundation.
With a 2-0 record in conference play, the Nittany Lions biggest focus will be making sure their legs are fresh on Sunday after their long trip.
"At this point it's all about regeneration," midfielder Drew Klingenberg said. "We're [unbeaten] which is awesome but it's taking a toll on us. [Against Penn] we did really well and the scoreboard says it but there are some things we can definitely work on.
"Going into Michigan, [the focus] is a bunch of regeneration and getting our minds right and back in a Big Ten mentality."
The Maloney Magic
At the Nittany Lions' preseason press conference, Warming said that sophomore Connor Maloney was "developing into a great forward."
He certainly wasn't kidding.
Eight games into Penn State's season, Maloney has already scored six goals. Twice, he has scored a pair of goals in a game and has added two assists, giving him 14 points on the year already.
By comparison, Jordan Tyler led last year's Nittany Lions, a team that made it to the Sweet 16, with five goals and 11 points. It has taken Maloney 13 fewer games to surpass those numbers.
Last year, Maloney was more of a creator than a scorer, finishing the season with two goals and seven assists. That has changed this year as Penn State has needed someone to step up as a scorer and the 5-foot-6 dynamo has more than filled that role.
"He's just an impressive player," Warming said. "What you see when you watch a game, we see it every day in training. He has not taken one practice off since he's gotten here and what I mean by that is he's fully engaged every practice. He works as hard at practice as he does out here on the field."
The last Nittany Lion to score ten or more goals in a season was Corey Hertzog, who scored an astounding 20 times in 2010 after scoring 11 in 2009. With nine games left on the Nittany Lions' regular season schedule alone, Maloney has a great chance to reach double digits.
Not that he cares about such things. Many individuals are classified as team players, but Maloney is someone who truly fits the bill.
Following his two-goal game against the Quakers on Wednesday, Maloney answered questions about his own performance by complimenting his teammates, just minutes after Warming had finished praising him on his work ethic.
"It definitely gives the whole team confidence, it's not just about myself," Maloney said. "All of us got [the ball] in, all of us got minutes and we're pretty confident going into Michigan."
That's the kind of attitude that Warming likes to see, and it's the reason the head coach wants the rest of his players to take after the 19-year-old from Harrisburg, even if he's just a sophomore.
"He needs to be a role model for some of our other guys," Warming said. "They need to work that hard in practice every day."