STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – A funny thing happened on the way to Lehigh for Lauren Nuss.
The Christ the King rising senior guard was heading for a visit at the Bethlehem, Pa., school when along the road she saw a sign for nearby Lafayette College, just a half-hour away. Nuss picked up the phone and got in contact with Leopards coach Dianne Nolan and asked her if she could come visit there after her stop at Patriot League rival Lehigh.
“I told her I was going to Lehigh, but Lehigh didn’t know I was calling Lafayette,” Nuss said Wednesday at the Blue Chip USA Invitational tournament at Penn State. “I tried not to make that awkward.”
Both schools made her list of final four schools along with Canisius and Division II Adelphi, in her hometown of Garden City. Nuss, who is plays her travel ball with Exodus II (Conn.), hopes to be able to make her decision soon and always wanted a school that was going to give her a chance to play at a high level and get a great education.
“A good academic school that’s the main thing and I have the grades for it,” she said.
While her college future is falling into place Nuss is still trying to added a few wrinkles to her game with her final season as a Royal quickly approaching. With stars Bria Smith and Nia Oden both graduated, more scoring and in different ways will be needed from the sharpshooter, whose 19 points and five three-pointers helped propel CK to a regular season win over Nazareth last season.
“A lot of the times, if I get to the basket I’m kind of just throwing it up against the big girls,” Nuss said. “I have been work a lot on [dribbling] in between the legs and pulling up.”
Molloy guard piquing interests early: The recruiting process is all a bit new to Alexa (Weazel) Dietrich. The Molloy rising junior guard is still getting a feel for playing in front of college coaches with her NYC Lady Bulldogs team starting the live period at Penn State this weekend.
“I tell her during the games, she doesn’t believe me: ‘You see those coaches? They are here for you,’” Bulldogs coach Tom Catalanotto said.
Assumption, Pace, Merrimack and Muhlenberg College all approached Catalanotto about her Wednesday. All of those schools are in need of point guards and Dietrich’s ability to run a team efficiently was a big reason why the Stanners won the state Federation Class A title last season. Dietrich, who is looking for a good academic school as well, isn’t letting the important audience members affect her game.
“I just play hard,” she said. “If anything happens it happens.”
She is helping the Bulldogs, who won the prestigious GymRat Classic in May, continue their success despite being without some of their key players and a lot of their height. Dietrich and Co. pushed their record to 2-1 for the tournament with two wins Wednesday. They are doing so without Carolyn Gallagher, Jasmine Alston and Rachel Lander.
“We haven’t had a lot of players,” Dietrich said. “But we have all been making up for what we lost.”
Positive Direction unbeaten: JoAnn Arbitello admitted her team’s trip to Penn State has historically been one of their worst of the summer, but that’s been far from the case for Positive Direction this time around.
Mary Louis stars Reana Mohamed and Jasmine Nwajei have their team perfect at 3-0 after two days, including a convincing win over the CT Basketball Club Wednesday night. They got key contributes from fellow Hilltoppers Liz Gully and Kristen Podlovits.
“This is the best we’ve even done at Penn State,” Arbitello said.
They advance to the Pacific Division quarterfinals 1:50 p.m. Thursday at the Bryce Jordan Center.