Way back in 2006, Megan Hodge (now Megan Hodge Easy) had a fantastic freshman season: she led the Big Ten and the team in points/set (5.57) and kills/set (4.83), hitting .270 for the season. She was an AVCA First Team All-America, and was named the AVCA National Freshman of the Year, the Big Ten Player of the Year, and the Big Ten Freshman of the Year. She was the first player in Big Ten history to earn First Team AVCA All-America honors as a freshman.
As a sophomore, she helped lead Penn State to the 2007 National Championhip, was the NCAA Championship Most Outstanding Player, an AVCA First Team All-America, and unanimous First Team All-Big Ten. She ranked 1st on the team and 3rd in the Big Ten with 4.60 kills/set, increased her hitting percentage to .297, was 2nd on the team with 2.54 digs/set, and averaged o.72 blocks/set.
Everyone should have a trajectory like that, right? Wrong. Very few players are Megan Hodge Easy. In fact, one could build a strong case that only Megan Hodge Easy is Megan Hodge Easy. So if a player doesn’t immediately set the collegiate volleyball world on fire, hold your fire. She is very likely to improve — and may even become very good, or even great.
Here’s a look at some historically very good, and some great, Penn State players who took awhile to reach that level of success.
Katie Schumacher-Cawley
Katie Schumacher started her career at Penn State with a redshirt season in 1997. Prior to 1998 — her first season of collegiate competition — Head Coach Russ Rose said:
“Katie has the tools to be an All-American. She’s an incredible attacker and I think it’s confidence and just an awareness of what it takes to be successful at this level. . . . I think in Katie’s case, if she can put it all together, then she has the potential to have a great college career. . . . But I think that it’s going to take some time, and she has to learn when to go for the home run and when to be a smart hitter. And those are the things that players develop through experience, and I think that she’ll develop those things and I truly feel she’ll become a person that everybody will have to keep an eye on because she brings the heat. I know Katie is going to have a bright future, but Katie is still a young person that’s going to have to decide when that time is going to be.”
Katie hit .077 for that 1998 season, and averaged 0.31 blocks/set, appearing in 11 matches and 13 sets.
But in her redshirt sophomore season in 1999, she blossomed. She played in 118 of 125 sets, averaged 3.17 kills/set (2nd on the team), hit .304 (1st among the team’s top three outside hitters), and was named a Volleyball Magazine All-American, AVCA All-Region, and All-Big Ten First Team.
It’s worth noting that the 1999 season was Katie’s third season at Penn State. Also worth noting is that the 1999 team (Penn State’s first National Championship team) was loaded with star players like Honda Volleyball Award Winner middle blocker Lauren Cacciamani (Sr.), four-time AVCA All-American setter Bonnie Bremner (Sr.), All-Big Ten Freshman team middle hitter Mishka Levy, NCAA Championship All-Tournament Team outside hitter Carrie Schonveld (Sr.), and AVCA All-Region outside hitter Amanda Rome (So.). There was alot of firepower on that team. That meant that teams couldn’t just double-team Katie and forget about everyone else.
Katie continued to excel at Penn State, earning Volleyball Magazine All-American, NCAA Tournament All-Region Team, and All-Big Ten First Team in 2000, and AVCA All-Region Team and All-Big Ten First Team in 2001. It took some time, but it was worth the wait.
Aiyana Whitney
Aiyana Whitney came to Penn State as a highly-decorated high school player, having been named a First Team Under Armour All-American as a senior and the 2011 New Jersey Gatorade Player of the Year. Coach Rose said this about Aiyana at the time:
She is a great net player with good ball-handling skills and a frame to get strong with. I was pleased with Aiyana’s performance during the club season. She was one of the go-to hitters on her team and is accustomed to that role. We are going to need someone who can hit the ball this year and I think she will develop quite well in that role. I think she’ll be competing for one of the outside spots.
She did compete for a starting outside hitter spot, appearing in 24 of 33 matches in the 2011 season, averaging 1.74 kills/set . . . and hitting .194 — 3rd to last on the team. Ouch.
Whitney followed that up by redshirting in the 2012 season. So, clearly a flameout, a recruiting mistake, a failure, right? Wrong. She started to turn things around in 2013, her redshirt sophomore season. Although she played sparingly in that National Championship season — appearing in only 21 of 36 matches and 32 of 127 sets — she improved her hitting percentage to a very respectable .316.
The 2014 National Championship season marked the turning point for Whitney. In her redshirt junior season — her 4th season at Penn State — she played in 126 of 127 sets, averaging 2.95 kills/set from the RS/Opp position (2nd best on the team), hitting .353 (tops among all the team’s pin hitters), and earning Second Team AVCA All-American and AVCA All-Northeast Region honors. She followed that up in her redshirt senior season in 2015 by hitting for an identical .353 season average, averaging 3.11 kills/set, and earning AVCA All-Northeast Region and All-Big Ten honors. It took time, but worth the wait.
Jess Mruzik and Cam Hannah
Next, let’s take a look at two of the players who were instrumental in leading Penn State to its 8th National Championship in 2024: Cam Hannah and Jess Mruzik.
Cam Hannah
At Clemson, Cam Hannah had an uneven start to her career. In her freshman season in 2020, she hit .251 in 20 matches with 3.94 kills/set, was named an AVCA honorable-mention All-American, and earned All-ACC Second Team honors. In 2021, her sophomore season, her hitting percentage fell to .189 and her kills/set dropped to 3.11. After another good-but-not-great season at Clemson in 2022 (.253 hitting percentage, 3.43 kills/set), Hannah transferred to Penn State.
Cam Hannah put up solid numbers in 2023, hitting .257 and averaging 2.93 kills/set (2nd on the team), but in 2024 — her Graduate+ season of collegiate competition, she stepped up big-time. Hannah averaged 3.61 kills/set (2nd on the team), and hit .286 (tops among all pin hitters on the team). She was named an AVCA honorable mention All-American, received AVCA All-Region recognition, made the All-Big Ten First Team, and was voted to the NCAA Championship All-Tournament Team.
Jess Mruzik
Jess Mruzik will go down in Penn State volleyball history as a player who in the biggest moments, when the lights were brightest, rose to meet those moments with stellar performances in which she was seemingly unstoppable. But her story isn’t one of unbroken success. After being named the National Gatorade Player of the Year in 2019, in the 2020 season she played in only 12 matches and 46 sets as a freshman at Michigan, hitting an underwhelming .157. She improved significantly in her next seasons — both at Michigan and at Penn State, hitting .244 with 3.57 kills/set in 2021 at Michigan, hitting .240 with 3.68 kills/set in 2022 at Michigan, improving to a .251 hitting percentage and 4.40 kills/set in 2023 at Penn State, and improving again in the 2024 season to a .259 hitting percentage, with 4.35 kills/set.
Her honors reflect her growth as a player — voted an AVCA Second Team All-American and All-Big Ten First Team in 2023, and in 2024 named NCAA Championship Most Outstanding Player, voted an AVCA First-Team All-American, and First Team All-Big Ten.
The Takeaway
As fans, we analyze and agonize about every statistic and metric we can find (at least any fan who has read this far in this article does). The one takeaway I derived from this article goes back to that opening Russ Rose quote about Katie Schumacher-Cawley, which applied to every one of the players we looked at for this article, and can apply to pretty much every player:
[I]t’s going to take some time, and she has to learn when to go for the home run and when to be a smart hitter. And those are the things that players develop through experience, and I think that she’ll develop those things and I truly feel she’ll become a person that everybody will have to keep an eye on because she brings the heat.
So, for Penn State fans distraught about the performances this season or last of Caroline Jurevicius (who is hitting .197 this season) or Emmi Sellman (who hit .136 in 2024 as a true freshman, coming off an injury, and is hitting .185 this season), take heart. Several very good/truly great Penn State players have struggled early-on in their careers. But they figured it out, and excelled. I like the odds for Sellman and Jurevicius to do the same.