Penn College News

Penn College Basketball Players Earn USCAA Awards

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Vol. 8, No. 31 (Through Sunday, March 14)

Penn College Wildcat Tales
Basketball
Pennsylvania College of Technology's basketball teams may have failed to make the United States Collegiate Athletic Association playoffs this season, but that didn't keep five players from receiving postseason honors.



Sophomore guard-forward Leroy Joiner of Williamsport was named a USCAA Division II First Team All-American for the second consecutive season. In 27 games, Joiner scored a team-high 527 points and became the sixth player in school history to eclipse the 1,000-point career scoring mark. He now has 1,019.

In addition, Wildcats named Academic All-Americans were Joe Simon (senior/Renovo), Phil Kaylor (junior/Lebanon) and Mike Knepp (senior/Swiftwater) from the men's squad and Casey Braun (sophomore/Hughesville) from the women's team.

Director's Cup
Through the winter sports season, Penn College is ranked third in the USCAA Director's Cup standings with 404.5 points. Rochester (Mich.) College leads the pack with 426 points and Southern Virginia University is second with 409.5 points. Rounding out the top five are New Hampshire Technical Institute with 364.5 points and Spalding (Ky.) University with 342 points. The Director's Cup is an annual award that honors the top performing programs in the association. Since it was inaugurated in 2006, Southern Virginia has won the award each year.

Baseball
The Wildcats' baseball team spent last week at spring training in Cocoa, Fla., and, despite the fact that it lost the three games it got in (two others were washed out), coach Chris Howard was satisfied with the early progress.

"I was pretty happy with the way everybody hit the ball. The first game, we scored 16 runs, but got beat 17-16 after being up 14-7 in the seventh inning," Howard said. "The fielding kind of let us down a little bit and we walked way too many. But for the first time outdoors, it's to be expected.

"I've always felt that our defense this year is going to be better than what we had last year. It's just a matter of putting things together and getting it all set up. I think we'll be ready for Sunday when we play Penn State Harrisburg," the coach added.

Before then, Howard looks to have his pitchers get more live throwing in, while his fielders continue to work on their defense.

"My outfielders played outstanding. They did a wonderful job the whole week. They did a great job of throwing the ball, catching, backing guys up. I was really pleased," the coach added.

Softball
Penn College opens its season Saturday at home with Penn State Harrisburg.

Recent Results/Upcoming Games
Baseball
Sunday, March 21 host Penn State Harrisburg (2), noon

Softball
Sunday, March 21 host Penn State Harrisburg at Elm Park (2), 1 p.m. Saturday, March 27 at Elmira (N.Y.) College (2), 1 p.m.

Archery
Saturday-Sunday, March 27-28 at Adam Wheatcroft Memorial, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Va.

Men's Club Volleyball
Overall record: 10-0 Saturday, March 20 host Villanova, 2 p.m., host Penn College alumni, 4 p.m.

(Complete rosters and season schedules are available on the college's Athletics Web site. For more information on the PSUAC, visit on the Web; more about the USCAA also is available online.)