Penn State Sports Magazine
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4 6 J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M T here was no time to waste after Katie Schumacher-Cawley took charge of the Penn State wom- en's volleyball program last January. The Nittany Lions' new head coach needed to replenish her roster — quickly. She and her staff did that by luring four players from the transfer portal. Graduate outside hitter Kashauna Wil- liams arrived from Long Beach State. Graduate setter Seleisa Elisaia came from Cal State Bakersfield. Senior outside hit- ter Zoe Weatherington and junior middle blocker Taylor Trammell headed to Penn State after starting out at Utah and Pur- due, respectively. With four-time All- American Kaitlyn Hord transferring out — and soon landing at Big Ten rival Ne- braska — the arrival of that quartet could hardly have been more opportune. "When I got the job on Jan. 10, it was a pretty big blur," Schumacher-Cawley recently told VolleyballMag.com. "We had to get great athletes who wanted to be a part of Penn State and what we were doing here. And we did. We got really lucky in the transfer portal with the four that we have. They were committed to wanting to do something different and to being the best they can be." Those players combined with an im- pactful four-player freshman class to re- fashion Penn State's roster into one that was capable of upholding the program's always lofty expectations. In Schumacher-Cawley's first season as the successor to Hall of Fame coach Russ Rose, the Nittany Lions went 26-8 overall (13-7 Big Ten) and reached the regional semifinals of the NCAA Tour- nament with wins over the University of Maryland Baltimore County and Central Florida in the first two rounds at Rec Hall in early December. Penn State's season ended Dec. 8 with a five-set loss to second-ranked Wis- consin. The Nittany Lions rallied back from two sets down but weren't able to maintain their momentum in the de- cisive fifth set, falling 15-8 in front of a raucous crowd in Madison. As had been the case throughout the season, the newcomers played key roles in the match against the Badgers. Wil- liams led the team with 14 kills, including the winner in the third set that started Penn State's comeback bid. In addition, Elisaia had 4 of Penn State's 10 aces in the match, an effort that helped the Lions counteract what Schumacher-Cawley had described as a "big, physical" Badgers lineup. The for- mer All-Big West player from South Jor- dan, Utah, also had 48 assists and 7 digs. Three of Penn State's newcomers received postseason honors from the Big Ten. Williams was a first-team all- conference pick, while Elisaia earned a second-team nod. In addition, first-year outside hitter Alexa Markley was named to the Big Ten All-Freshman team after reaching double digits in kills in four of PSU's last five regular-season matches. Going forward, Schumacher-Cawley said she doesn't expect to rely quite so heavily on the transfer portal to replenish the program's talent pool. "I'd like to think it's not going to be like that every year," she said. "I don't want to be having to get four or five players every year." Schumacher-Cawley attributed much OLYMPIC SPORTS Schumacher-Cawley, a former Penn State All-American and an assistant coach under Russ Rose for four years, guided the Nittany Lions to a 26-8 record and a 13-7 mark in Big Ten play this season. PHOTO COURTESY PENN STATE ATHLETICS A Fresh Start PSU's revamped women's volleyball team reaches the regional semifinals of the NCAA Tournament under first-year head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley M AT T H E R B | M A T T. H E R B @ O N 3 . C O M