The Penn State Women’s team face off against Army tomorrow in the National Semi-Finals. The team traveled to Palo Alto on Wednesday and had a run through today. The selections for this trip were the toughest we have ever had. There are a number of players back in State College who were good enough to travel, but we just did not have enough spots available.
The team comes to the Final Four with some concerns. In particular we did not get to play in the round of 8, with BYU forfeiting their game and the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee declining the chance to play. This means that our best team has not had a chance to play together. We selected a less experienced team against UMass, and while they held their own it was only when we brought on some leadership that we managed to pull away. This meant that the team had a intra-squad game last week to help prepare.
This is Army’s first trip to the National Championship, but they are no strangers to Penn State. In 2007 we had to overcome a great Army team in the round of 8. It was a great game that we won 17-12. We also played Army in September and won another close contest 19-12.
Army has an unusual attack, as they play a flat back line. Alums from the 1997 team will remember that we played a flat attack that year as well. The benefit of the flat back line is that it puts pressure on the defense to make decisions and it encourages the attacking team to move the ball and find the space. Army does this very well, and they create space for their outside backs to make long breaks. Their fullback Jessica Sexauer is a great runner and a great finisher and is someone that we need to account for.
You can check out Army’s game against UCLA.
On the other side of the bracket are two teams that Penn State is very familiar with. Stanford and Brown will face off in the game before ours, and we expect it to be a physical vs finesse battle. Kerri Hefferman is an excellent coach and has made Brown into a powerhouse, and obviously Jon Griffin at Stanford has created a great rival for Penn State. Who ever comes through that side will be a tough opponent.
You can see Stanford’s game vs Virginia and Brown’s games against Navy online.
