Russ Rose Then (2009): “Arielle has been able to be an All-American and still fly under the radar screen. I think Arielle is a terrific offensive player. She’s also improved a great deal. She’s worked hard in the classroom and gymnasium to be the best she can be. I’d expect her to have a good year and be a major factor in the team’s success this year.”
Russ Rose Now (2025): “Ari was a great offensive player. She was one of the top slide attackers in the country, as shown by her hitting well over .400 for her career. She held the national record for career hitting average for several years and still ranks 2nd all-time in D1. Ari was an incredibly hard worker who Dennis Hohenshelt spent a lot of time working with to improve her court awareness and net presence. She went into coaching and was an assistant for a couple of years at Georgia Tech and Missouri, and at DePaul for a little bit with Nadia Edwards, and now is the head coach at Central Michigan. Ari was loyal and worked hard at everything that was important. She is one of three players at the division one level to have won four national championships, along with Alyssa D’Errico and Blair Brown. She played professionally and spent some time with the national team as well. She always represented us in great fashion.”
2009 Season (Junior) Highlights and Awards: 2009 National Champion … AVCA First Team All-American … NCAA Championship All-Tournament Team … NCAA Regional Championship All-Tournament Team … AVCA First Team All-Mideast Region … First Team All-Big Ten … Nittany Lion Invitational All-Tournament Team (9/5) … Big Ten Player of the Week (9/28, 10/5, 10/19) … Preseason All-Big Ten … led the nation with a record-breaking .540 attack percentage … her career .489 attack percentage ranked 1st on the Nittany Lion charts … led the team and the Big Ten with 186 total blocks … averaged 1.52 blocks/set to rank 2nd in the Big Ten and 4th in the nation.
Season Recap: Started all 38 matches playing in 122 sets … finished 3rd on the team with 337 kills, averaging 2.76 kills per set … had double-digit kills in 15 matches … … led the team in blocks 16 times … ended the year with 494 total blocks for her career to rank 5th on the Penn State record list and her 1.54 blocks per set for her career ranked 5th … contributed 48 digs … had at least 1 dig in 25 matches … had 7 kills on 7 errorless swings vs. Robert Morris (9/5) … set the Penn State rally scoring era record for 3-set matches with 13 kills on 14 attempts (.929%) … tied her career-high of 17 kills at Michigan (10/16), while also tallying 7 blocks.
NCAA Tournament: Put down 12 kills on 15 attempts vs. Binghamton in the first round of the NCAA Tournament (12/4) … registered 11 kills on .346 hitting with 6 total blocks in the National Semifinal 3-1 win over Hawaii (12/17) … had 9 kills on .348 hitting, with 5 total blocks (1 solo) in the reverse-sweep National Championship win over Texas (12/19).
Before Penn State: Four-year volleyball letterwinner and one-year basketball letterwinner at Proviso East High School in Maywood, Ill. … three-year varsity volleyball captain and four-year starter for the Pirates … earned all-state, all-conference and all-area honors her senior season … two-time team Most Valuable Player … ranked seventh nationally by Prepvolleyball.com in 2006 … named one of the top 50 recruits in the nation in 2007 … tabbed by Mizuno as the best middle blocker in 2006 … member of the 1st Alliance Volleyball club program … was also named the best rebounder for Varsity basketball at Proviso East, helping her team to the regional championship during her junior season … four-year member of the honor roll and was named all-academic for varsity volleyball during senior season.