UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; November 2, 2006 - Two members of the Penn State defense, junior goalkeeper Conrad Taylor (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and sophomore back Ryan Badaracco (Wexler, Pa.), have been selected to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District II First Team in recognition of their standout efforts on the soccer field and in the classroom. They will now advance to the national ballot and have the opportunity to earn academic all-America honors.

Taylor, a kinesiology major, and Badaracco, a finance major, maintain impressive grade point averages in their chosen field of study, continuing the Penn State men's soccer tradition of academic excellence. In total, Nittany Lions have been named to academic all-region or all-America teams on 23 occasions. For Taylor, the district honor is his second consecutive after earning the accolade last year as a sophomore. He then went on to be named to the academic all-America second team.

Taylor has been one of the few constants this season, as he has been throughout his three years at Penn State. Taylor has started every game of his collegiate career, a streak of 62 consecutive contests. He has not missed a minute of playing time since earning a spot in the starting line-up in the first game of his freshman year, a total of over 5,950 minutes. With 21 career shutouts, Taylor currently sits in third place on Penn State¡¯s career shutouts list, just 7.25 behind all-time leader Greg Kenney.

Badaracco has been a mainstay on the Penn State defense in 2006, standing as one of just three Nittany Lions to start all 18 regular season games. An integral member of the back line, he has developed into a steady defender and strong leader through his first two seasons in Happy Valley.

The fourth-seeded Penn State men¡¯s soccer team (6-10-2, 3-3-0) will begin defense of its 2005 conference title today when it meets No. 5 seed Northwestern (11-6-0, 2-4-0) in a 10:30 a.m. first round match-up at the 2006 Big Ten Championship. Hosted by The Ohio State University, all tournament games will take place on the Columbus, Ohio campus at the home of the Buckeyes, Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.

Should Penn State claim a victory against Northwestern, it will advance to face archrival Indiana, the championship¡¯s No. 1 seed, in a semifinal match-up on Fri, Nov. 3 at 5 p.m. The Nittany Lions defeated the Hoosiers, 1-0, in University Park on Oct. 20 in front of a live national television audience, their third straight win in the series.