Russ Rose Then (2005): “Kate was our best player in Italy until she was injured. Unfortunately, her foot injury caused her to drop off of the USA Junior National Team and we’re still waiting for her to heal completely. The good thing about Kate is that she has so much volleyball experience that she will be able to get herself back into the mix very quickly. She learned a great deal last season about college volleyball, and my expectations for her are very high.”
Russ Rose Now (2025): “Katie was one of the top recruits in the country in 2004 and was one of the best natural passers that I coached during my career at Penn State. She was a confident and fearless competitor and was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year as an outside attacker for the 2004 season. She transitioned to playing a different role the next couple of years, because we had outside hitters come in like Nic Fawcett in 2005 and Megan Hodge in 2006. It’s hard to beat out two people who are going to be playing for Team USA. In hindsight, what I especially love about Katie is that she could easily have left and gone somewhere and been an All American. But she stayed at Penn State and helped us build the program, get better, and win the National Championship in 2007. From the time Katie arrived at Penn State as a freshman to the end of her playing career at Penn State, she always cared about the team, and she would do whatever was asked to help the team, whether it was to play front row or back row or in practice, go the other side of the net and be a player that we had to focus on for match preparation. After Katie graduated, she was a college coach for a few years. Katie was a really fine volleyball player. And I think if she would have stayed in coaching, she would have had a great career as a coach. I heard from her a couple of weeks ago that one of her younger children wants to get into volleyball, and she might come back and help in a volleyball club in some way. I told her ‘this is what people get for lessons.’ And she said, ‘Oh, I would never want to do that for money. I’d do it because people helped me when I was young.’ So that’s pretty nice, you know? Yeah, she is 100% loyal to Penn State and the volleyball program and, in hindsight, that was and is still now the most important thing to me. I’m a big fan of Katie Price.”
2005 Season (Sophomore) Highlights and Awards: Preseason All-Big Ten.
Season Recap: Saw action in all 34 matches and 99 of 111 games for the season … averaged 2.69 kills per game, 0.21 service aces per game, 2.13 digs per game and 0.55 blocks per game as an outside hitter and primary passer … was one of four players in double-digit kills (10) versus Hawaii (8/27) at the AVCA/NACWAA Showcase in Omaha, Neb. … had 10 double-digit kill matches for the year … tallied a season-high 16 kills on .417 hitting against Western Michigan (9/1) at the Hawaiian Airlines Classic … racked up 14 kills on .462 hitting versus Indiana (10/1) and 11 kills on .562 hitting at Northwestern (.526) … ranked 3rd on the team with 21 service aces … provided a career-high 5 service aces versus Pacific (9/9) at the Nebraska Players Challenge … recorded 1st double-double of the season with 12 kills and 17 digs at Hawaii (9/2) … posted a career-high 18 digs against Southern California (8/31) at the Hawaiian Airlines Classic … had at least 4 digs in 24 matches of the year and provided double-digit dig figures in 7 matches, including the last 3 of the season … had 16 multiple-block matches, including 8 of the last 9 contests … provided 4 blocks at Ohio State (9/28) and against Wisconsin (10/28).
NCAA Tournament: Recorded a career-high 6 blocks in the NCAA Tournament Second Round win over Long Island (12/3).
Before Penn State: Four-year volleyball letterwinner at Fraser High School in Fraser, Mich. … team captain in 2003 for the Ramblers … led Fraser to the Michigan state title in 2002 and 2003 … a three-time first team all-state selection … earned honorable mention all-state following freshman year … also won the state championship in the high jump … was a three-year track letterwinner and a three-year basketball letterwinner … named a Volleyball Magazine ‘Fab 50’ selection in 2003.