Northwestern contest to air on national TV
ABC will televise Penn State's Big Ten home opener with Northwestern on Saturday, September 30. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. in Beaver Stadium.
The clash with the Wildcats (2-1) is No. 24 Penn State's (2-1) sixth announced TV appearance of the season. This Saturday's contest at No. 1 Ohio State will be seen by most of the nation on ABC at 3:30 p.m. and the Nittany Lions' Oct. 14 clash vs. Michigan will be an ABC split national telecast at 8:00 p.m. in Beaver Stadium.
The Nittany Lions' season opener with Akron aired on ESPN2 , the Notre Dame game was on NBC and last week's 37-3 win over Youngstown State was an ESPNU national telecast.
The Nittany Lions have appeared on television in 141 of their last 143 games.
Penn State leads the series with Northwestern, 8-3, capturing a comeback 34-29 victory in Evanston last year in the Big Ten opener.
Future Penn State contests may be selected by the networks under the six and 12-day provisions of their contracts with the Big Ten. All of Penn State's Big Ten home games are sold out. A limited number of tickets are available for the Nov. 11 contest with Temple.
Banta receives award for offensive output
Junior forward Shaun Banta was named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week yesterday after a weekend in which she scored five goals in two games, which included a natural hat trick on Sunday. She is the second Nittany Lion to be named Player of the Week by the Big Ten this year, as she follows teammates Mallory Weisen, who was the league's co-Offensive Player of the Week two weeks ago.
Banta has now scored six goals in her last three games and leads the Nittany Lions in goals (7) and points (16) on the year. She is also second in the Big Ten in both categories. Against Lafayette on Friday, she scored two goals, the second and third goals of the game for PSU. Then, on Sunday at West Chester, she recorded a natural hat trick, scoring three straight goals on just three shots. Her three straight goals gave Penn State a 5-0 lead, putting the game out of reach in a 6-0 Lion victory. It was the first hat trick for Penn State since Annelise Legel had one last year and just the second hat trick for Penn State since 2002.
Brown, Team Canada eliminated at tourney
Penn State senior women's basketball player Amanda Brown's run with Team Canada at the 2006 FIBA World Basketball Championship in Sao Paulo, Brazil came to an end yesterday with an 82-41 loss to the host Brazilians.
One night after leading the Canadians with 15 points in a loss to Spain, Brown had four points, two rebounds and an assist in the loss to Brazil. The senior post player averaged 7.2 points and 4.8 rebounds with a .667 field goal percentage in six games.
Team Canada finished in eights-finals play at the World Championship with an 0-3 record. The Canadians were 1-5 overall in the tournament with the lone win coming against Senegal.
Brown will return to campus at the end of September and will be on hand to lead the Lady Lions as they open their season November 11 at Drexel.
Championship tickets for Big Ten available
Tickets will go on sale today for the three Big Ten events being held at Penn State in 2006-07. The events include the Big Ten Women's Soccer Tournament (Nov. 2-5, 2006), the Big Ten Women's Gymnastics Championships (March 31, 2007) and the Big Ten Men's and Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships (May 11-13, 2007).
Tickets for the Big Ten Women's Soccer Tournament are $15.00 for all-session adult passes and $10.00 for youth, senior citizen and student all-session passes.
All ticket orders will carry a $2.00 handling fee.
Single day passes will be sold at the gate during each game.
