Starting a new thread for the Penn State Nittany Lions for 2015. Penn State loses some key players this year in: Whitney Church - First Team All-American and a rock in the defense Emily Hurd - All Big Ten 2nd Team and Great Lakes Team Honoree - Provided great speed on the wing and crosses into the box Kori Chapic - Another part of the rock solid defense and 2nd Team all Big Ten Kindrah Kohne - Her contributions were sometime overlook. With such a young team with 11 freshman, the seniors for next year will be counted on heavily for leadership. Key Contributors this year, Mallory Weber, Rocky Rodriguez, and Britt Eckerstrom will need to provide leadership to the young squad. Salina Williford (So) and Mallory Peterson (Jr) also will be counted on to play big roles. This freshmen class was outstanding and should be counted on to provide some experience themselves. Frannie Crouse was the goals leader with 10. Haleigh Echard, Elizabeth Ball, Maddie Elliston, Katy Keen, Megan Schafer and Emily Ogle all provided significant contributions as first year players. Finally, the 2015 class of recruits is highly ranked. But it remains to be seen who can contribute early and often for the team. I see another Big Team Championship and a run into the NCAAs again for next year. Other thoughts?
What about Brittany Basinger? I believe she redshirted this year because of injury. Any news on her return?
She is recovering well and will be ready to go. She will be huge asset to team! Excited to see her play!
Raquel Rodriguez was nominated for CONCACAF Player of the Year. Nice honor for Rocky http://www.gopsusports.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/121114aac.html
This year's freshman class has 3 members in the Top Drawer 100 freshman. This was a strong class. http://www.gopsusports.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/121914aab.html
Just saw on the Recruiting Site that Nickolette Driesse transferred from Florida State to Penn State. FSU Supporters what can you tell us about her? https://sites.google.com/site/soccerrecruits/
She played a lot last year but not so much this year. She will be a solid player. She may not be spectacular, but she should help you.
Penn State 2015 Recruits announced. Looks like a solid class. Could have several starters from this group. http://www.gopsusports.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/020415aab.html
Wed, March 25 – Sky Blue FC vs. Penn State – 8:00 PM Location: In the Net Sports Complex (Palmyra, PA)
3 Nittany Lions contributed to the U20 National Team sweep of Sweden, the Netherlands, and Norway at the 10 Nations U19 tournament in Spain. http://www.gopsusports.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/031115aaa.html
2015 Schedule is posted: http://www.gopsusports.com/sports/w-soccer/sched/psu-w-soccer-sched.html Nice early matches with Duke and Arkansas at Penn State. Then 3 tough road matches with West Virginia, Stanford, and Santa Clara. Right after that start with a tough Big 10 home match with Wisconsin. Very good early test.
Raquel Rodriguez Cedeno scored tying goal for Costa Rica vs Spain. First World Cup goal scored by Penn State player.
Penn State added a player, Alina Ortega Jurado from German U17-U19 teams for 2015. http://www.gopsusports.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/071415aaa.html
These international players tend to bring a higher level of technical ability and tactical ability. That could be for one of two reasons that occur to me. One. We're only getting the best of the internationals. Or two their youth system may be designed for better technical and tactical development. I don't know the answer. I'm sure some of you would have a better idea.
Was wondering how in the hell can Penn State get a player at this late juncture. Pretty certain that they must have used cost of attendance. Cost of attendance is something available to all the Big Five conferences. Meaning they can give $ above and beyond tuition with room and board. Everyone has a different COA and how they use that differs. Penn State's cost of attendance is $4,788. So multiply that by 14 scholarships and you get $67,000. Wholla, new scholarship created to get a German national team kid. So my guess is Penn State staff decided to not pass out cost of attendance to their players, instead using that $ to create another scholarship. Probably won't be the only program to do this. Wonder what the fallout will be when other scholarship players are denied receiving their cost of attendance so their coaches could use that $ to get another player. So 9 players in that class. Very strong group. My guess is 2-3 won't pan out and will transfer out by the end of the year. Typically they like to overrecruit and then have players move on elsewhere.
Not sure you get a kid of this caliber at the last second. I imagine they have recruited across the spring. However I can't imagine that every big program in the country isn't using the COA as a way to add more players and reward others. It's not just a women's soccer thing, it's every sport that is equlivancy (baseball, men's soccer, tennis, golf, softball, etc.)
Perhaps Penn State left money available in the class for an international player? To make a statement that they have used cost of attendance money to create a scholarship without knowing the specifics in their program on a public forum seems unneeded.
Agreeeeeeee!!!!! There seems to be a lot of people using this forum to castigate and criticize programs for "supposed crimes against ethics". The worst part is, they are using supposition to cast these aspersions.
They had two players transfer out this year - at least one of which was getting significant $$. Using COA money would be an outright violation. I very much doubt they are doing that.
Who were the two players to transfer out? They always have 2-3 players leaving. My guess is Ceclia Knaub and Charlotte Williams will be the ones with little playing time and then transfer out. Not a violation to not give out COA. Not for Olympic sports. So you can keep it and make a 15th or maybe even 16th scholarship. I won't debate the ethics of that. West Virginia just got an international player, Dalanda Ouendeno, from France. We are TWO WEEKS from preseason and ONE MONTH from the first real game. And miraculously Penn St and WV were able to bring in an international and had a full ride to do it each. Where do you think that $ came from? Let's not pretend to be that blinded.
I don't know the answer of this particular situation. Is it possible that the coach had been working on this particular player for a good long while, and just got her to say "yes"? In other words, she had scholly money allocated for her. Is it also possible that she was working with the school and the NCAA to get her approved? International players have a more complicated time with the NCAA due to their system over there which sometimes reimburses them. Also classes have to be vetted and approved for what equates to our high school graduation requirements. The point is, you are essentially making accusations, which may or may not be true, without all the facts. That is reckless, at the least.