UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The No.6-ranked Penn State women's volleyball team opens the 2018 season this weekend as they host Eastern Kentucky, UMBC, and Navy for the Penn State Classic over August 24-25 inside of historic Rec Hall.
Schedule
Friday
Navy vs. UMBC – 5 pm
Penn State vs. Eastern Kentucky – 7:30 pm
Saturday
Penn State vs. UMBC – 10 am
Navy vs. Eastern Kentucky – 1 pm
Eastern Kentucky vs. UMBC – 4 pm
Penn State vs. Navy – 7 pm
Parking
Women's Volleyball fans will have free parking in the Nittany Parking Deck, as well as in the Red A lots off North Atherton Street at White Course Drive. The Rec Hall ticket office opens 60 minutes before all matches.
Fabulous 40
Head coach Russ Rose enters his 40th season at the helm of the Nittany Lions. He has a 1,246-198 record heading into 2018, with seven NCAA National Championships, and 17 Big Ten Titles to his name. He is the winningest coach by percentage all time (86.3%), and current winningest active DI Coach by wins (1,246), and percentage (86.3%). The celebration will happen over the August 30-September 1 weekend.
Welcome Home
Penn State added graduate transfer Taylor Leath to their roster for 2018. Leath is a native of Port Matilda, Pa., and graduated from State College Area High. Leath spent the last four seasons at the University of North Carolina, where she, after red-shirting her freshman season, was a significant contributor as a six-rotation outside, totaling 928 kills, 624 digs and 183 total blocks. Leath was the 2016 ACC Player of the Year and an AVCA All-America second team honoree that season. Leath was named a Preseason All-Big Ten already in 2018. Leath graduated from UNC in May 2018 with a bachelor of art in political science, and will be pursuing her masters at Penn State in communications media studies.
Fresh faces
Penn State welcomes 10 newcomers to their line-up this season, as Taylor Leath and Bayleigh Hoffman join as transfers, and Gabby Blossom, Allyson Cathey, Serena Gray, Jenna Hampton, Brooklynn Hill, Kaitlyn Hord, Jonni Parker, and Amanda Phegley all combine to make up the No. 1 recruiting class for 2018 according to PrepVolleyball.com.
Whole new staff
Russ Rose needed to fill his entire staff follow the 2017 season as former Associate Head Coach Salima Davidson retired from collegiate coaching, assistant coach Craig Dyer accepted a position at Creighton, and director of Operation Jon Perry went back to the west coast to work with Team USA. Rose elevated Dennis Hohenshelt, who spent 2017 as the volunteer assistant coach, to assistant coach. Hohenshelt served as Penn State's assistant coach from 2006-2011, before heading to Virginia to serve as the head coach from 2012-16.
Rose also added Katie Schumacher-Cawley to his staff. Schumacher-Cawley played for Penn State from 1998-2001. She was a member of the Nittany Lions' first National Championship squad in 1999. She brings in a wealth of coaching experience having served as the head coach at Illinois-Chicago for eight seasons, and spent one season at the helm of the Penn Quakers.
Virginia Pham was added at the Director of operations position, joining Rose and his staff after fulling that same role at Oklahoma.
With Hohenshelt returning to a full-time role, Penn State brought in Chris Rose as the volunteer assistant. Rose served most recently as an assistant coach at Marshall, where he was tasked with coaching the pin hitters, running the block, and scouting report.
Nationally-Ranked
Penn State women's volleyball team opens the 2018 season as the No. 6 team in the nation according to the American Volleyball Coaches Association Top-25 preseason poll. The Nittany Lions came in at No. 6 behind Stanford, Nebraska, Texas, Minnesota, and Kentucky. The Big Ten made up 40-percent of the top ten teams as Wisconsin rolled in at No. 9. Illinois, Michigan State, and Purdue were all also ranked, coming in at No. 12, No. 22, and No. 23, respectively.
Preseason Plunder
Graduate student Taylor Leath and junior Kendall White were named to the 2018 Preseason All-Big Ten Volleyball team. The team has been picked to finish fourth in the Big Ten.
