PSUAC Crowns Three Team Champions This Week
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State University Athletic Conference has crowned all of its fall champions this year after a busy week of games. The PSUAC playoffs for men's and women's soccer and volleyball all culminated with championship games on Tuesday or Wednesday this week. Penn State Brandywine continued their dominance on the pitch by winning their fifth straight men's soccer crown, while Penn State Mont Alto ascended to the throne in women's soccer. Penn State Greater Allegheny won their first women's volleyball title in the recent era (since 1998) on Tuesday.
VOLLEYBALL
Our week kicked off with our volleyball semifinals in Rec Hall, and it did not disappoint. Penn State Schuylkill pulled off a major upset in the first semifinal, toppling the West's top seed Penn State Mont Alto 3-1. Maddy Felty and Maddy Robinson led the way with 13 and 12 kills, while Felty dominated at the net. Ava Seltzer dished out 31 assists as Schuylkill made their first championship match in recent memory. Not to be outdone, Greater Allegheny knocked off East number one seed Penn State York in straight sets, 3-0, on the strength of 17 kills from Alix Ellis and 15 from Sueriah Timsah.
For the first time since going to divisional play in volleyball we did not have at least one number one seed in the finals, as each division's number three seed advanced to the championship. Greater Allegheny proved to be too much as Bailey Lange was strong throughout, finishing with 12 kills, 11 assissts, three service aces and four digs. Teammates Ellis and Timsah each finished with 10 kills, while Timsah added 12 digs of her own.
Greater Allegheny became the first team not named Fayette or Brandywine to win the title since 2004, and will be the PSUAC's automatic bid recipient to the USCAA Small College National Championship.
MEN'S SOCCER
Brandywine continued their string of men's soccer dominance, picking up their fifth straight title and seventh in the last eight years it's been played (no championship in 2020 due to COVID-19). They weren't just handed the trophy as number two seed Penn State Lehigh Valley gave them everything they had.
The defensive struggle went a full 90 minutes without a goal as Lehigh Valley's Kenneth Dyer stopped 13 shots and Brandywine's keeper Elijah DeBooth had eight of his own. But once overtime hit, Brandywine went on the attack and Alexis Cordova Bernal finally found paydirt, hitting the back of the net at the 95:44 mark to send his teammates into a frenzy.
Brandywine earns the PSUAC's automatic bid into the USCAA Small College National Championship next week.
WOMEN'S SOCCER
Since the sport's inception in the PSUAC, only two campuses have won women's soccer titles. Neither one of those were at the West Turf Fields on Wednesday, so a new champion was sure to be crowned. It happened to be Mont Alto who took advantage of their depth and outshot Penn State Schuylkill 26-12 on the evening to eventually pick up a 2-0 win.
It took some time, but Mont Alto finally found the back of the net with just 1:25 remaining in the first half as Erika Padilla took a pass from Kara Newell on the left side of the goal. At the almost identical time in the second half Mont Alto's Avery Diehl scored off of an assist from Yvanna Ruano to cement the victory. Jesime Freet stopped all six shots on goal for the victors.
Mont Alto earns the PSUAC's automatic bid to the USCAA Small College National Championship, while Schuylkill picked up an at-large bid.