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ter, announcing the selections while at- tending the Volleyball Nations League tournament in Italy. At Penn State, Hancock was known for her unreturnable serve. She set a school record with 380 career aces, and that was one of the reasons why Kiraly chose her. "Micha had a great season for her No- vara team in Italy playing with Haleigh Washington," he said. "Micha's got her jump spin going now, and each [of the set- ters] bring different facets and factors. We made the best decision we could, but I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who are upset with us or angry with us or frus- trated with us. Again, you could make good arguments for any of those three. It's difficult that we only get to choose two." On the men's side, Holt and Anderson both played starring roles on Penn State's 2008 national championship team and are longtime members of the national squad, Anderson having made Team USA's roster in '08 and Holt joining him the following year. Both played on the American team that claimed bronze at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, and Anderson, a 6-foot-10 opposite hit- ter, has been the team's leading scorer every season since 2011. Between them, their pro careers have taken them to Italy, Russia, China and Korea. Russell played on Penn State teams that reached the NCAA tournament semifi- nals in consecutive seasons. He, too, was on the 2016 Olympic squad, having been a member of the national team since 2014. He's been playing professionally in Italy since 2015. In addition to the volleyball contingent, Penn State will be represented in Tokyo by wrestler David Taylor. A two-time na- tional champion and four-time NCAA fi- nalist with the Nittany Lions, Taylor will compete in the freestyle competition at 86 kilograms. He earned his trip to Tokyo by shutting out another Penn Stater, three- time NCAA champ Bo Nickal, in the final round of the Olympic trials in April in Fort Worth, Texas. Taylor defeated Nickal, 4- 0 and 6-0, in the best-of-three final to earn his first trip to the Games. "It's something I've been training for my entire life," Taylor told USA Wrestling after clinching his spot on the team. "To be able to accomplish that this year feels great, but the job is not done." Taylor and Nickal are friends and Nit- tany Lion Wrestling Club teammates, and the final-round matchup inspired mixed emotions. As Taylor told USA Wrestling, "I would have rather wrestled somebody else in the finals. Bo is amazing, and I wouldn't be where I am without Bo." A two-time Hodge Trophy winner while at Penn State, Taylor was able to put those feelings aside and claim the cham- pionship. Now he's looking to become the first Penn State wrestler to win an Olympic medal of any kind. "My goal is to be a gold medalist," he said. "That's something I've had my en- tire life. That's my expectation. It's going to be hard, but the first step is done, and I can check that box. I'm going to Tokyo, P erseverance was the theme of day three of the Penn State Coaches Car- avan in early June. That included per- severing through some technical problems that delayed the proceedings by about 10 minutes and rendered Russ Rose's portion of the video conference choppy and inaudible. Rose, who was appearing on the call from his office in Rec Hall, disappeared briefly. When he reappeared, he was seated next to Cael Sanderson in Sanderson's Rec Hall of- fice. The two coaches, owners of 15 na- tional championships between them, spent the rest of the night riffing off each other's comments like the stars of a Hollywood buddy comedy. So for all the problems, there was a workaround to be found. The same principle applied to their respective 2021 seasons. Challenged like never before by the pandemic, Rose's women's volleyball team and Sanderson's wrestling squad found ways to get through it. The women's volleyball team had much of its regular season canceled due to COVID protocols. Eight matches were called off, including the team's last four, creating a nearly month-long gap between the end of the regular season and the start of the NCAA tournament. Penn State ended up finishing 10-6, the 42nd winning season of Rose's 42-year career, and it reached the regional semi- finals at NCAAs, where it dropped a 3-1 decision to Texas. Rose said one of the lessons of the 2021 spring season was that everyone STAYING THE COURSE To highly successful PSU coaches, 2020-21 athletic year taught value of resilience | SANDERSON ROSE

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