Lehigh Hosts #6 Penn State Friday Night

[ngineer]

Lehigh welcomes the #6 ranked Nittany Lions Friday night. Due to the larger than average crowd expected, the match will be held at Stabler Arena (5,600). I'd guess about 3,000. PSU has a large Lehigh Valley following and right now they are riding high with 6 wrestlers ranked in the top 10 and 8 ranked in the top 20. Lehigh has only one starter ranked in the top 20 (Craig #15 at 184). Mountain Hawks are taking their lumps this year with a very young team. 8 of the starters will likely be Freshmen or Sophomores. There are 5 bouts that Lehigh might have a shot at winning; though the other five bouts the Nits are very heavy favorites, with bonus points quite likely. IF we can hold the Nits down bonus point-wise, and win all 5 'toss-ups', it could make things nervous for Penn State. Realistically, I will be happy if we can hit double digits and hold the Nits to the mid-20's.

[BlueHen86]

Lehigh welcomes the #6 ranked Nittany Lions Friday night. Due to the larger than average crowd expected, the match will be held at Stabler Arena (5,600). I'd guess about 3,000. PSU has a large Lehigh Valley following and right now they are riding high with 6 wrestlers ranked in the top 10 and 8 ranked in the top 20. Lehigh has only one starter ranked in the top 20 (Craig #15 at 184). Mountain Hawks are taking their lumps this year with a very young team. 8 of the starters will likely be Freshmen or Sophomores. There are 5 bouts that Lehigh might have a shot at winning; though the other five bouts the Nits are very heavy favorites, with bonus points quite likely. IF we can hold the Nits down bonus point-wise, and win all 5 'toss-ups', it could make things nervous for Penn State. Realistically, I will be happy if we can hit double digits and hold the Nits to the mid-20's.
Good analysis. Good luck tomorrow night.

[ngineer]

Well, the one thing about wrestling scores, the team scores don't really reflect the quality of the match. Penn State won all ten bouts to win 33-0, but 6 of the matches either went into sudden victory overtime, or were decided by 1 or two points. I had thought we'd 'steal' a few of the toss-ups, but unfortunately some of guys were just too tentative. Hopefully this young team learns to respond . Despite the physical nature of wrestling, the mental aspect is what makes champions.