Jan. 18, 2010

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; - Following strong performances from its fall sports, including a third consecutive women's volleyball national championship, Penn State stands in fourth place in the 2009-10 Learfield Sports Directors' Cup standings.

The Nittany Lions have garnered 318.50 points to post their 10th top five fall finish in the 17 years of the Directors' Cup. Fourth place marks the Lions' best fall finish since 2005-06, when they were second. Penn State has finished in the top 25 in all 16 previous Directors' Cup surveys, with eight top 10 finishes.

Penn State trails only Stanford, Virginia and UCLA in the final fall 2009-10 Learfield Sports Directors' Cup standings.

Five Penn State fall squads garnered Directors' Cup points, led by 100 from women's volleyball. The football team racked up 70.5 points, the men's and women's soccer teams reached the round of 32 to pick up 50 points apiece and women's cross country added 48.

Penn State (38-0) became the first team in NCAA women's volleyball history to win three straight National Championships and in doing so, extended its win streak to 102 via a dramatic title match against Texas. Trailing two-sets-to-none, National Player of the Year Megan Hodge and the Nittany Lions battled back to win the final three (25-23, 25-21 and 15-13) for the historic championship in front of the second most-watched championship match in the sport's history. Led by Hall of Fame coach Russ Rose, Penn State's 102-match winning streak is second-longest in NCAA Division I history, trailing only the Miami, Fla. men's tennis team.

Jason Yeisley

The women's soccer team continued its sustained excellence with its 12th straight Big Ten Championship. The Nittany Lions were undefeated in their final eight regular season games. Penn State hosted NCAA Championship first and second rounds, thumping Colgate, 5-0, in the first round. Virginia eliminated the Lions in the second round, handing Coach Erica Walsh's them its first loss in nearly two months. Senior forward Katie Schoepfer was named a First Team NSCAA/adidas Scholar All-American and an NSCAA Third Team All-American.

Men's soccer enjoyed a strong season as well, finishing second in the final Big Ten regular season standings and in the conference tournament. Despite the title game defeat, Penn State earned an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament. After earning a bye as the No. 7 seed, Coach Barry Gorman's squad lost a 2-1 heart-breaker to defending National Champion Maryland in the second round. Jason Yeisley won the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award and earned first team ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America® honors, as did Hodge, who was the Academic All-American of the Year in women's volleyball.

Bridget Franek

In addition to its competitive success, five Penn State student-athletes earned ESPN The Magazine Academic All- America® accolades. In addition to Yeisley and Hodge, football student-athletes Josh Hull, Andrew Pitz and Stefen Wisniewski also earned first team Academic All-America® honors. Penn State had a school record 11 All-Americans® in 2008-09.

The Learfield Sports Directors' Cup Standings are unveiled following the fall, winter and spring seasons. The last time the Nittany Lions stood in fourth following the fall was in 1999-00, when they went onto to earn one of their four top five finishes.

The Learfield Sports Directors' Cup was developed as a joint effort between the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and USA Today. Points are awarded based on each institution's finish in up to 20 sports -- 10 women's and 10 men's.