Penn State’s women’s volleyball team will play in the national championship on Sunday, Dec. 22. This isn’t new territory for the Nittany Lions, as they already have seven women’s volleyball championships. One in 2024 would just mean more for the program.
This year, Penn State had a bad loss to Pitt in September. Although not rivals, the schools are only a few hours apart. The Panthers were ranked No. 1, so it was a tough test. The Lions took that loss hard, with outside hitter Jess Mruzik saying, “It just seems like we got absolutely kicked in the throat, and we had no idea what we were doing.”
That wasn’t the biggest adversity the team felt in September, though. It was also the month that head coach Katie Schumacher revealed that she was battling breast cancer.
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Katie Schumacher cancer diagnosis, explained
Schumacher is just the third women’s volleyball head coach at Penn State. She took over the role in 2022 after four years as the Associate Head Coach. Schumacher played volleyball at Penn State from 1998 to 2001 and basketball for the Nittany Lions from 2001 to 2002. She’s been coaching volleyball in some capacity since graduating college in 2002, with the last…
