Blue White Illustrated

VARSITY VIEWS TOUGH-MINDED After a painful exit in 2012, Micha Hancock regroups | t wasn't the worst injury, not one of those awful ACL tears or a broken bone that might take six or eight months to rehabilitate and who knows how much longer to mentally recover from. "A pretty decent sprain" is how Micha Hancock describes it now – a painful ankle injury, no doubt, but one that she ultimately managed to play on later in the same match. It was a big match, after all. Penn State was up a set on Oregon last December in the NCAA semifinals and battling early in Game 2 when Hancock, the Nittany Lions' All-America setter and best server, came down on the foot of an opponent at the net. She sat for a while before returning later in the set, but she was clearly hobbled, her athleticism and mobility largely muted. Unable to put weight on her left ankle, and unable to push off to deliver her devastating jump serve, Hancock simply couldn't provide her team what it desperately needed. The Lions' saw their early lead morph into a season-ending 3-1 loss. And that's why, nine months later, the pain lingers. Less so physically – Hancock says she feels the occasional dull ache in the joint – than mentally, because she knows what that moment cost. "It was hard to sit there and watch when I was on the bench, and even when I came back in, I really didn't have control," she said. "I definitely still think about it. Sometimes when I don't want to go to the gym, or I'm tired, I just think about how crappy I felt. We had such a great season, and to get hurt in our last match…" I There was no lack of off-season motivation, in other words, a scary thought for a player who was already among the nation's best. And as good as she already is, Hancock knows she can get better. A first-team All-America setter as a sophomore last fall, she said she's still getting the hang of this whole "setting" thing. "She's still figuring out the nuts and bolts of the position," said her coach, Russ Rose. "She's kind of an instinctive kid. She was a hitterslash-setter, and I think deep down she still likes to be a hitter-slash-server-slash-setter." The reason is simple: Growing up in the relatively small pond of Edmond, Okla., just outside Oklahoma City, Hancock was simply too good and too big not to dominate the net. "I wasn't the smallest in the gym, I was one of the most athletic, and I could hit pretty hard," she said, recalling a prep career that included two state Player of the Year awards. "Now, if I want to go anywhere in the world of volleyball, I know I need to do it through setting. I've learned a lot about controlling the game. The aggression that I don't get out by hitting, I get to take out serving." Does she ever. At 5-foot-11, and with a blistering left-handed delivery, Hancock led the Big Ten and was third in the nation last season with 81 aces, the second-highest single-season total in school history. Who owns the record? Hancock does, of course: She served up 91 aces as a freshman in 2011. You can check YouTube for highlights— including one in which a hapless Nebraska player tries to return one of Hancock's serves with her face – and note the deceptively no-frills technique that results in a subtly curving arc of terrifying speed. The senior front line of Deja McClendon, Ariel Scott and Katie Slay will be vital for the Lions this fall, but it's Hancock, now a junior, who arguably shoulders the heaviest load. In that, Rose cites the obvious – her often unreturnable serves and her improved understanding of how to choreograph the offense – as well as the rugged constitution you might expect from a young woman whose father, Michael, was once a pro boxer. "I think the fact that she was willing to come back into that match after she got hurt is an indication that she's a tough kid from tough stock," Rose said. A healthy Hancock, leading by example through her toughness and talent, might well be the difference between another Final Four exit and a I sixth national title. MICHA HANCOCK "I've learned a lot about controlling the game. The aggression that I don't get out by hitting, I get to take out serving."

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