RIO DE JANEIRO -- Sweden did it again, this time against the hosts.The Swedes are headed to the gold-medal match at the Olympics for the first time, advancing 4-3 on penalties after a scoreless draw with Brazil on Tuesday.Brazil forward Marta, one of the biggest stars of the tournament, buried the first kick of the shootout. But at 3-3, Sweden goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl stopped Andressas shot before Lisa Dahlkvist beat Barbara to end it, stunning the packed home crowd at the Maracana Stadium.The noise was for me, to get the ball in the goal. Simple answer, Dahlkvist said, laughing while describing how she tuned out the din at the nearly full stadium.Sweden has now won two straight penalty shootouts. In the quarterfinals, the Swedes beat the United States, knocking the Americans out of medal contention for the first time.Sweden will face Germany in the final on Friday at the Maracana, the site of the mens World Cup final in 2014. Brazil will play for the bronze against Canada in Sao Paulo.Marta had one of Brazils best chances, but her free kick in the 115th minute bounced before the goal and Lindahl was able to snag it.The fans at the nearly filled 78,000-seat Maracana -- the biggest crowd ever for a womens national team match in Brazil -- roared whenever Marta touched the ball. Brazils charismatic forward won FIFAs Womens World Player of the Year five consecutive years from 2006-10. But she has never won a major international tournament with her national team.This loss wont take away from all that we have done to get here, Marta said. We have the match for the bronze medal now and we will fight until the end to get that medal. We have to pick up the pieces to try to win this medal.Both teams had their chances in the opening 90 minutes, and the intensity rose as the defensive-minded Swedes started going on the attack more.Sweden was riding high after knocking off the three-time defending champion United States in the quarterfinals. The loss sent the top-ranked Americans home without a medal for the first time since womens soccer joined the Olympics in 1996. The World Cup champions were vying for their fourth straight gold.Sweden deployed a defensive strategy against the United States and advanced 4-3 in a penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw in Brasilia. Afterward, U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo drew attention for calling Sweden a bunch of cowards for its style of play.Sweden coach Pia Sundhage used a similar tactic against Brazil, changing her approach after losing to Brazil 5-1 in group play. Marta and Beatriz scored two goals each in that first match.Sundhage said that Sweden did not use Solos comments as motivation against Brazil.What people are saying in the media, its not a big deal. Very often you say it, and I dont even really think you mean it, Sundage said. We talk about football.Sundhage coached the United States to gold medals at both the Beijing and London Games. A victory in Brazil would give her a third-straight Olympic title.The Brazilians have twice won silver medals at the Olympics. Both times, at the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Games, the United States won in the final.Swedens best finish was in Athens when the team fell to Germany in the bronze medal match. Brazil beat Sweden 1-0 in the semifinals at those Olympics.Yes, we are very excited. That we are doing something that the Swedish national team has never done before -- play for a medal -- its a big smile, Sundhage said. Still, were not satisfied. We want to win the next game.Germany 2, Canada 0Germany avenged a defeat to Canada in the group stage to advance to the gold-medal match in the second semifinal in Belo Horizonte.The Germans opened the scoring in the 21st minute after Canadas Kadeisha Buchanan brought down?Alexandra Popp, and?Melanie Behringer converted the resulting penalty for her fifth goal of the tournament.Canada nearly equalized before the break, but?Germanys Tabea Kemme cleared?Buchanans header off the line.Sara Daebritz doubled Germanys lead in the 59th minute with a low shot from the edge of the box.Germany goalkeeper Almuth Schult then kept out Canadas attacks to ensure her team reached the final. Colorado Rockies Pro Shop . 4 Villanova with a 96-68 drubbing on Monday. Wragge hit 9-of-14 from behind the arc, matching Kyle Korvers school record for 3-pointers in a game set in 2003, as Creighton (16-3, 6-1 Big East broke a conference record with 21 treys in the rout. Colorado Rockies Gear . The native of Mont-Tremblant, Que., captured a World Cup downhill event Saturday, his second this year and fifth career victory on the circuit. https://www.cheaprockiesjerseys.us/ .Y. -- Bills receiver Stevie Johnson has a bone to pick with the NFL schedule maker. Cheap Rockies Jerseys . This should be celebrated because it will not always be this way. With the amount of money given to players by their clubs these days, it is a wonder that so many of those teams allow the sport to continue to take away many of their assets so they can play for a different team in the middle of their season. Fake Rockies Jerseys . Meanwhile, there were huge victories for Sunderland and West Ham over fellow relegation rivals, leaving the battle to avoid the drop up for grabs with the bottom 11 teams separated by just six points. Eden Hazard and Fernando Torres scored second-half goals to seal a fourth straight victory for Chelsea, which climbed above Arsenal and Manchester City in the standings ahead of their games on Monday and Sunday respectively. STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Pat Chambers watched nearly all of the film available on Wright State heading into Saturday.Penn States coach was worried about the Raiders, specifically their ability to shoot 3-pointers with pinpoint accuracy and fill hoops at a clip of nearly 83 points per game. That average took a big hit after Penn State tilted the court decidedly with stingy defense in the Nittany Lions 72-50 win on Saturday.I probably watched six out of their nine games, Chambers said. They can really fill it up. A team like that really scares me, and man, these guys really stepped up.Shep Garner scored 17 points, Payton Banks added 15 and the Nittany Lions (6-3) held the Raiders (6-3) to just 16-of-66 shooting. Mark Alstork led Wright State with 15 points while Justin Mitchell and Steven Davis added nine each. Mitchell led the Raiders with 11 rebounds.Wright State shooters made just 6 of 23 3-pointers but heated up with three in the final seven minutes. By then it was too late as the Nittany Lions led by 27 when Mike La Tulip hit the Raiders final 3-pointer with 3:51 left.Im pretty sure thats the worst offensive output that Ive ever seen in 22 years, Wright State coach Scott Nagy said.Josh Reaves and Lamar Stevens added 12 points apiece for the Nittany Lions (6-3) who won their fourth straight. Tony Carr grabbed 12 rebounds.The Nittany Lions led for all but 56 seconds and pulled away after leading 29-26 at halftime. Penn State opened the second half with a 13-2 run and steadily increased it as the game wore on. The Raiders werent able to cut Penn States lead by any more than 13 points and did so when Grant Benzinger tipped in a rebound to make it 45-32 with 14:42 left.I thought our team did a really nice job coming out in the second half and basically saying, were better than what we showed in the first half, Chambers said.BIG MIKE, BIG DIFFERENCE MAKERPenn State forward Mike Watkins was dominant before foul trouble forced him to spend most of the first half on the bench.The 6-foot-9 forward grabbed five rebounds, blocked four shots and added a steal in the first seven minutes he played. He finished with eight blocks, nine rebounds, a steal and addded eight points.dddddddddddd He was 6-for-6 shooting from the free-throw line.Id like to say a lot of times, we have really good defensive possessions and I like to think of myself as a really good on-ball defender, Reaves said. But just having Mike behind you, its just so comforting. Its God-given. Its just a blessing to have him behind us playing defense.When Watkins returned in the second half, he continued to foil the Raiders who had little success driving the basket and underneath. They finished with just 16 points in the paint.STEVENS BOUNCE BACKStevens first half ended poorly. He missed his last five shots, all short or mid-range jumpers and Wright State chipped away at Penn States lead in the meantime. Stevens entered the locker room frustrated.He sparked Penn States run in the second half with six of the teams first 13 points including two nice drives, one ending with a vicious slam dunk between defenders.I think that ignited us for sure, Chambers said. Lamar was pretty upset about how he finished the half and I talked to him very kindly at halftime and then he said to me, `I got you. And thats when I knew Lamar was about to turn it up and really play well. But we need that consistency for the minutes that hes on the floor.THE BIG PICTUREWright State: Picked in the preseason to finish in the middle of the Horizon League pack, the Raiders entered the game a game behind Valparaiso and Oakland for the conferences top spot. Theyll play five of their next six games on the road including the Horizon League opener against Oakland on Dec. 29.Penn State: The Nittany Lions have four players averaging in double figures and two are freshmen. The balanced scoring has been buoyed by Chambers commitment to spread minutes around to keep his players fresh. Eight of 10 Nittany Lions played at least 15 minutes on Saturday and the strategy appears to be paying off with four games left before Penn State begins Big Ten play.UP NEXTWright State plays at Loyola of Chicago on Wednesday.Penn State hosts George Mason on Wednesday. ' ' '