Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1169916
VARSITY VIEWS | S ophomore middle blocker Kaitlyn Hord had, only mo- ments earlier, been lavishing praise on the freshman class that the Penn State women's volleyball team had assembled, talking up their positive attitude and high-impact potential. "A lot of them have shown some really strong improvement just from preseason," Hord said at Penn State's fall sports media day in late August. "I'm excited to see what the future holds for us." Somewhat less excited was the man seated to her left, the man who had assembled that class, longtime Nittany Lions coach Russ Rose. "Kaitlyn has a much more optimistic look at some of the freshmen than I do right now," Rose said dryly. "Good for her. It's nice, through the eyes of babes, to be optimistic. That's cute." Rose went on to note that on some of his best teams, the young players would hold their own against the male players he brings to practice in order to ratchet up the level of compe- tition. With the Nittany Lions' season about to begin, he wasn't seeing that from his latest group of newcomers. Said Rose, "I think some of the young players have a long way to go and have to be a lot tougher and a lot more aware of what's going on at the college level." The sense of urgency was understand- able, because the performance of the team's many young players is going to have a significant role in determining how successful the Nittany Lions will be this season. Of the 20 players on Penn State's roster, 15 have either freshman or sophomore eligibility. Six of those players are freshmen. And yet, the abundance of youth didn't prevent Penn State from cruising through the first few weeks of its nonconference season. The Nittany Lions opened with five consecutive sweeps, thrashing Hofstra, Holy Cross, Wichita State, Iowa State and LSU in advance of high-profile home matches against No. 1 Stanford and No. 10 Oregon. Several freshmen played key roles in those wins, as outside hitter Lauren Clark YOUTH IS SERVED A talented sophomore class sparks the Nittany Lions' bid to compete at volleyball's highest level JONNI ON THE SPOT Parker was a third- team All-American for Penn State as a freshman, leading the team in points and kills. Photo by Steve Manuel