UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State Athletics is off to a strong start in the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup, standing No. 3 nationally with 315 points.
Penn State won the 2013 NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championship and claimed Big Ten titles in women’s volleyball, men’s soccer and field hockey during the fall.
Penn State and Stanford are the only athletic programs to earn points in six sports during the fall. The Cardinal are atop the standings with 394.50 points followed by Virginia (323), Penn State (315), Michigan State (297.50) and North Carolina (288).
The final Learfield Sports Directors' Cup fall standings will be announced in mid-January.
The women’s volleyball team led the charge in the fall for the Nittany Lions, capturing its sixth NCAA title with a 3-1 win over Wisconsin in the NCAA Championship match to score 100 points in the Directors’ Cup standings. Coach Russ Rose’s squad (34-2) won its fifth NCAA crown in the past seven years. The progam’s six NCAA titles are tied with Stanford for most in the nation.
Five additional Penn State teams participated in their respective NCAA Championship and scored Directors’ Cup points last fall: men’s cross-country, women’s cross-country, field hockey, men’s soccer and women’s soccer.
Penn State has won 24 NCAA Championships since 1993-94, its first full year in the Big Ten Conference, more than double every other Big Ten institution. The Nittany Lions have won 70 team national championships all-time.
The Nittany Lions have finished in the Top 25 in all 20 Learfield Sports Directors' Cup standings, placing No. 6 in 2012-13, to earn their 15th top 15 finish.
Penn State is one of only nine programs nationwide to have finished in the final top 25 in every Directors’ Cup standings, joined by Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio State, Southern California, Stanford, Texas and UCLA.
The Learfield Sports Directors' Cup standings were 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.