Russ Rose Then (1994): “I’d coach forever if I had players like Zeynep. She’s a coaches’ dream. She’s an exceptional student, and on the floor Zeynep’s a very competitive, wiry player. She just does so many things. She’s our best server. She’s not one of our better practice players but at game time, Zeynep really has the ability to step up and perform well. She’s been a joy to watch and coach because she’s such a quality person. She’s one of a kind. We’ve had some marvelous Academic All-Americans come through here and we’ve had some athletic All-Americans and a lot of all-conference players, but Zeynep is really a great combination of both and the term ‘student-athlete’ is an accurate one.”
1994 Season (Junior) Highlights and Awards: First-Team GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-America honors (3.97 grade-point average in civil engineering) … Academic All-Big Ten … Honorable-mention All-Big Ten.
Season Recap: Played in 34 of 35 matches and 111 of 117 sets … averaged 3.34 digs and 2.41 kills as a starter and was second on the team with 30 service aces … ranked 4th in the Big Ten in digs/set and 13th in hitting percentage (.271 ) … season-highs: 17 kills vs. Ball State (9/24); 27 digs vs. Ohio State (9/21); 7 blocks vs. Purdue (11/18); 3 aces vs. UCLA (9/ 9).
NCAA Tournament: NCAA Mideast All Region.
From Turkey to America: “When Zeynep Ton walked into her first practice as a member of the Penn State women’s volleyball team in 1992, she [barely knew] a word of English. Coming directly from Turkey, 16-year-old Ton walked into practice having memorized the media guide for that year. Penn State coach Russ Rose recalled that when she saw a teammate she would recognize their picture from the guide, and greet them by saying, ‘Hello (fill in name) from (their hometown).’ In Ton’s four years on the team, she not only learned another language, but she proved herself as both a standout athlete and scholar. ‘She was a breath of fresh air everyday,’ Rose said. ‘I think most college students, given the opportunity could do all the right things, some elect not to do all the right things, or elect to do what they think is important. Zeynep did all the right things.'” From “Former Penn State athlete finds success as professor,” by Jocelyn Syrstad, The Daily Collegian, Dec. 8, 2009.
Before Penn State: Ton competed on 3 national championship high school teams, a junior national title club team and the Turkey Junior National squad … a team captain, Ton led Uskudar HS to national titles in 1989, 1990 and 1991 and the International School Championship in 1990 … led her junior club team to the national title in 1990, a 2nd place showing in 1991 and a 3rd-place finish in 1992 … was a participant on Turkey’s Junior National team which placed 7th at the 1990 European Championship … also experienced success on the sub-junior level, competing on teams that placed 3rd nationally in 1990 and 1991.
