Nittany news and notes: James Franklin seeks championship advice, volleyball stars dominate, and more

James Franklin was busy with recruiting and visits with a star defensive player who’s injury status is shrouded in mystery, so he reportedly got a bit of help keeping his current team motivated for the final stretch of the regular season. Franklin invited legendary Penn State wrestling head coach and 11-time national champion Cael Sanderson to speak with his team for the second time this year. 

Sanderson also spoke with the team during the offseason and returned to the Lasch Football Building with the Nittany Lions at 6-0 and ranked at No. 3 in the country ahead of their Big Ten roadtrip to Madison to face the surging Wisconsin Badgers. While Franklin doesn’t have the championship experience that Sanderson does, he told reporters that Sanderson’s message was very consistent with his own. 

“His message is really very consistent with the messages that we give our guys all the time. It's just a different voice delivering that, which is powerful. So it's not the same message that we're delivering from the same people. It's a similar message.”

Franklin told the assembled media that Sanderson spoke a lot about being present and appreciative and controlling what you can control. What Penn State can control this week is beating Wisconsin, which will alleviate quite a bit of pressure going into a potential top-5 showdown with Ohio State at Beaver Stadium in Week 10. 

Penn State women’s volleyball stars continues to dominate

Penn State women’s volleyball stayed put at No. 3 in the latest AVCA rankings after beating Ohio State and Minnesota this past weekend. The Nittany Lions are 18-1 overall and 8-0 in conference play and the biggest reasons for this sustained success are graduate outside hitter Jess Mruzik and true freshman setter Izzy Starck. 

Mruzik was named the Big Ten Women’s Volleyball Player of the Week for the third time this season after racking up 29 kills in a five-set win over the Buckeyes and 18 kills while hitting .325 against Minnesota. Many of those kills came courtesy of Starck, who was named the Big Ten Women’s Volleyball Setter of the Week after averaging 12.00 assists per set across the weekend. Starck has now won a Big Ten weekly award in six of the first eight weeks of the season. 

Penn State will look to say undefeated on a West Coast trip this weekend, facing UCLA on Thursday and No. 16 USC on Saturday. 

More: Penn State soccer struggles out West

Both Penn State men’s and women’s soccer teams were out on the West Coast this past weekend and both struggled. The Penn State men fell to 5-7-2 (2-4-2) with a 3-1 loss to Washington in Seattle on Friday night. The Penn State women were in LA for the weekend and on Thursday night played to a 0-0 draw against No. 10 UCLA before losing to No. 9 USC 2-1 on Saturday. The Penn State women wrap up the regular season against Ohio State in Columbus on Sunday at Noon ET.