UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Big Ten Network has released a portion of its fall broadcast schedule that features two Penn State women's soccer matches and a late season field hockey match.
Penn State's 15-time Big Ten Champion women's soccer team will be featured on the BTN at least twice this season. The NIttany Lions' home contests against Ohio State on Thursday, Oct. 17 at 3 p.m. and Illinois on Sunday, Oct. 20 at 12 p.m. will air on the BTN. Additionally, both Big Ten Tournament semifinal matches and the championship game will be aired live on the BTN.
The Nittany Lions' field hockey program, the defending Big Ten regular season and tournament champions, will receive BTN coverage when they travel to Iowa City to take on perennial power Iowa in a late season matchup on Friday, Oct. 25 at 3 p.m. In addition to the regular season match, the Big Ten semifinal matches and the championship match will air live on the BTN.
The 2012 NCAA College Cup finalist women's team opens the 2013 regular season at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, August 23 against West Virginia as a part of the Penn State Invitational. The Lions will also match up against Hofstra at 12 p.m. on Sunday, August 25 in the four-team tournament. Penn State returns 8-of-11 starters from last year's squad, including MAC Hermann Trophy Semifinalist Maya Hayes (West Orange, N.J.), Big Ten Defender of the Year Whitney Church (Ashburn, Va.), reigning Big Ten Freshman of the Year Raquel Rodriguez (San Jose, Costa Rica), Bri Hovington (Lothian, Md.), Taylor Schram (Canonsburg, Pa.), Emily Hurd (Sammamish, Wash.), Kori Chapic (Novelty, Ohio) and Mallory Weber (Novi, Mich.).
The Lions' field hockey team returns plenty of experience to the 2013 squad. 8-of-11 starters from last year's team are back for the upcoming season; including five of Penn State's top six point leaders in Whitney Reddig (Lititz, Pa.), Brittany Grzywacz (Collegeville, Pa.), Ashtin Klingler (Selinsgrove, Pa.), Laura Gebhart (Mount Joy, Pa.) and Taylor Herold (Fredericksburg, Va.).
The Big Ten Network is available to more than 90 million homes through agreements with more than 300 cable, satellite and telco providers in all 50 states and Canada. Armstrong, Blue Ridge and Adams Cable, though, do not carry the BTN in Pennsylvania and the Medina and Youngstown, Ohio areas. More than 35,000 Penn State alumni live in the communities served by the three cable providers in Pennsylvania and the Medina and Youngstown areas, in addition to thousands of more fans and current Penn State students.
Armstrong, Blue Ridge and Adams Cable customers missed more than 110 Penn State events on BTN during the 2012-13 academic year, in addition to coverage from 15 conference championships.
About BTN: A joint venture between the Big Ten Conference and Fox Networks, BTN is the first internationally distributed network dedicated to covering one of the premier collegiate conferences in the country. With more than 800 events, all in HD, the 24/7 network is the ultimate destination for Big Ten fans and alumni across the country, allowing them to see their favorite teams, regardless of where they live. BTN2Go is the 24/7 simulcast of BTN that delivers live and on-demand programming via the internet, smartphones and tablets to customers of participating video providers. Events include football, men's and women's basketball games; dozens of Big Ten Olympic sports and championship events; studio shows; and classic games. The network televises and streams more Olympic sporting events and women's sports than has ever been aired on any other network. Original programming highlights activities and accomplishments of some of the nation's finest universities. The groundbreaking Student U initiative provides real-world experience for students interested in careers in sports television. The network is in more than 52 million homes across the United States and Canada, including carriage by all the major video distributors, such as DIRECTV, DISH, Verizon FiOS, AT&T U-Verse, Charter Communications, Comcast Xfinity, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Cox Communications, Mediacom, RCN, WOW!, Rogers Cable, Shaw and Shaw Direct (Canada) and approximately 300 additional video providers across North America. For additional information, go to www.BTN.com.
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