Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1531683
4 8 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 5 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M A few years ago, Jess Mruzik could scarcely have imagined her colle- giate volleyball career ending amid a cloud of confetti, an NCAA champion- ship trophy held aloft. Mruzik had started out at Michigan, the school she had dreamed of attending while growing up. She had been to a U-M camp as a kid after giving up cheerlead- ing for volleyball, and she served as a ball girl for the Wolverines' home matches. After she received a scholarship offer while on a campus visit, Mruzik and her mother returned to their car and cried tears of joy. The program checked every box on her list. Except for one. The Livonia, Mich., native had na- tional championship aspirations, and the Wolverines had been stuck for years in the middle tier of the Big Ten. Her pres- ence didn't change that. She played in only one NCAA Tournament match dur- ing her time in Ann Arbor, a five-set loss to Ball State in the first round. After three seasons, degree in hand, Mruzik went looking for a program that could deliver the one perk Michi- gan couldn't offer — a realistic shot at a championship. She found it at Penn State. Mruzik was well aware of the program's illustrious history — the national championships, the All-Americans, the Olympians — and she wanted to be a part of whatever came next under Katie Schumacher-Cawley, who had just completed her first season as head coach. "When I was coming to Penn State, I knew that was the standard," Mruzik said. "I'm probably one of the most com- petitive people you'll ever meet in lit- erally everything; don't ever play cards with me. I knew coming into Penn State, this was going to be my best shot." This past December, Mruzik's decision paid spectacular dividends. The gradu- ate outside hitter and two of her fellow transfers — super senior middle blocker Taylor Trammell, formerly of Purdue, and graduate outside hitter Camryn Hannah, formerly of Clemson — were the catalysts behind Penn State's surge to the national championship. They helped the Nittany Lions rally past Nebraska, 3-2, in an instant-classic semifinal matchup on Dec. 19 at the KFC Yum! Center in Lou- isville, Ky. Then they capped the team's six-match NCAA Tournament run three days later by spearheading a 3-1 win in what amounted to a road match against Louisville. The on-court celebration that fol- lowed had been years in the making, and after all the hugs and tears, Mruzik couldn't help but reflect on the path that had brought her to the pinnacle of col- legiate volleyball. "If you would have told me three years ago that I was going to be a na- tional champion at the end of my ca- reer, I would have told you that you were crazy. Three years ago, I wasn't even in the tournament," said the Nittany Lion standout, who was named the tourney's OLYMPIC SPORTS KENTUCKY REIGN The Penn State women's volleyball team brings a long-awaited NCAA championship back from Louisville M AT T H E R B | M AT T. H E R B @ O N 3 . C O M By topping Nebraska in the semifinals and Louisville in the title match, Penn State claimed its first NCAA women's volleyball championship since 2014. PHOTO COURTESY PENN STATE ATHLETICS