The top 10 moments in Penn State sports for 2002-03

The 2002-2003 sports year was the year Penn State came back. And not only just in football. Through the end of the winter sports campaign, Penn State was third in the NACDA Directors Cup Standings, in which schools earn points from all of their NCAA teams based on finish. The Nittany Lions have finished in the top ten seven times, but are coming off a year in which they finished No. 24.

The season has provided plenty of exciting moments and story lines to captivate Penn State fans. Some, such as the Anwar Phillips case and the recent altercation that may have involved wrestlers and football players, haven't been the most positive, but in large part, it's been a great year to be a sports fan in Happy Valley.

We at the Collegian put together our top ten events of the year in sports. As you will see, it was a lot tougher to decide which events belonged in the top ten than it was to find ten of them.

10) Penn State wrestling squad returns to prominence

After two years of the toughest years in its program's history and its two lowest finishes at the NCAA championships, the wrestling squad posted a sixth-place finish, its best at the NCAA tournament since Troy Sunderland's first year as head coach in 1999. The team's four All-Americans were the most since that 1999 squad.

Junior Josh Moore and his twin brother Scott finished third and fourth in their respective weight classes. Heavyweight Pat Cummins finished fourth and 184-pounder Mark Becks finished seventh. They also finished third in the Big Ten Championship behind juggernauts Minnesota and Iowa. Scott Moore brought home a Big Ten title at 141-pounds and Sunderland was named Big Ten Coach of the Year.

9) Penn State Field Hockey Reaches Finals of NCAA Tournament

After a 21-year absence from the national championship game, the Penn State field hockey team fell to Wake Forest 2-0 in the 2002 NCAA Field Hockey Tournament final. The road to the final matchup saw the Nittany Lions defeat Kent State and Princeton in the first two rounds, followed by an upset 3-2 win over Old Dominion in the national semifinals. The win over Kent State in the first round of the tournament was also Penn State field hockey coach Char Morett's 300th career victory.

8) Penn State Icers Win Third Consecutive ACHA National Title

The Penn State Icers became back-to-back-to-back ACHA national champions after defeating interstate rival Ohio 5-0 in the tournament's final game. The win over the Bobcats also gave the Icers its seventh overall national title. Four Icers were named to the all-tournament team, including Curtiss Patrick, Glenn Zuck, Kevin Jaeger and Josh Mandel. Icer goalie Scott Graham was named the tournament's most valuable player.

7) Men's Soccer Team wins Big Ten Title, advances to Elite Eight

Barry Gorman's team had 17 freshman and sophomores on the 24-man squad, and came out to a shaky 9-7 start. Gorman refused to write the season off as a rebuilding campaign however, so did his team. They won seven straight games, which included a shocking championship run in the Big Ten tournament and a win over defending champion North Carolina in the NCAA tournament. It ended with a loss to UCLA in the quarterfinals, but it gave the Nittany Lions a lot of hope for next season.

6) Ed DeChellis Named Head Coach of Penn State Men's Basketball Team

After the resignation of former Penn State basketball coach Jerry Dunn, Ed DeChellis made his return to Happy Valley as the new head men's basketball coach. A Penn State graduate and former assistant coach under Bruce Parkhill from 1986 to 1996, DeChellis left his head coaching position at East Tennessee State in the Southern Conference to join the Penn State staff.

DeChellis has led the Bucs to three consecutive South Conference North Division titles during the last three years, and has solidified his team as one of the top scoring teams in the nation. Now he has to turn around a team that comes off back to back 7-21 seasons, and loses its top two scorers -- one to graduation (Brandon Watkins), and one to a transfer (Sharif Chambliss).

5) Women's Soccer Team Makes Final Four

Christie Welsh didn't quite match her Hermann Trophy season of 2001, but with great support coming from the rest of the squad, the women's soccer team won the Big Ten regular season title and made their second appearance in the College Cup before losing to Portland 2-0 at the national semifinal.

After finishing the season with eight straight victories, they fell in the first round of the Big Ten tournament for the first time ever, but had a magical run in the NCAA tournament with wins over Princeton, Maryland, Virginia and Connecticut.

4) Women's Basketball Team Reaches Sweet 16

The Lady Lions trounced Holy Cross and South Carolina in the opening rounds of the 2003 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament at the Bryce Jordan Center. The Lions then made the trip the Knoxville, Tenn. to face Tennessee on its home court in the regional semifinals. Penn State could not overcome the Lady Volunteers rebounding prowess, and fell 86-58. The Lady Lions finished ranked No. 12 on the season.

3) Penn State Football Team Returns to Bowl Game for First Time Since 1999

The Nittany Lions finally made Happy Valley happy again after the most painful period in coach Joe Paterno's tenure. Though the 13-9 loss to Auburn in the Capital One Bowl was a sorry sight, it was far more welcome to Penn State fans than the only two-year bowl drought since Paterno took over the team in 1966.

The Nittany Lions showed a dominance in their wins that they haven't showed since 1999, and they fought to the end in their losses. They lost by just six points to eventual national champion Ohio State, seven to Iowa, three to Michigan, and four to Auburn.

2) Penn State Football Team Crushes Nebraska

Though we've already mentioned the football team's season, this game deserves an entry all to itself. Playing under the lights on a nationally televised network broadcast, the Penn State Nittany Lions upset then No. 7 Nebraska 40-7 in front of a record home crowd of more than 110,000 at Beaver Stadium.

The 33-point deficit was the Huskers worst loss in 12 years.

Penn State's defense, anchored by Jimmy Kennedy and Michael Haynes, held the Huskers to only 252 yards of rushing and 76 yards in the air. On the other side of the ball, Penn State racked up just less than 500 yards of total offensive output. Making his breakout performance was redshirt freshman quarterback Michael Robinson, who scored two touchdowns on the night.

1) Larry Johnson's 2,000 yard season

Johnson was a man among boys in the second half of the season. With the exception of the Ohio State game, there was not a player on the field in that period who looked like he had anywhere near the amount of speed, power, or raw talent Johnson had. Four times in the last six games LJ eclipsed Curt Warner's previous school record for rushing yards in a game, including his best effort, a 327-yard performance against Indiana.

He sat most of the second half for most of those games including the game against Michigan State in which he broke the record. He needed 264 yards to break the 2,000 yard mark and had 279 by halftime. He was just the ninth running back in NCAA history to break that mark, a feat that earned him the Doak Walker, Walter Camp and Maxwell Awards, and earned him a third place finish in the Heisman Trophy vote.

Honorable Mentions:

Six Penn Staters are drafted in the first two rounds of the NFL draft; Kelly Mazzante scores 2,000 points; Men's Volleyball wins EIVA championship; Fencing squad finishes second; men's basketball squad upsets Wisconsin, Indiana; Kevin Tan leads men's gymnastics to third place finish, Men's Gymnastics wins national championship in rings; Women's gymnast Katie Rowland wins Big Ten all-around title.