Penn State women’s volleyball commit Ava Falduto earned her invite to the Under Armour All-America Volleyball Match following a standout showing at the UA Next Chicago camp on July 7.

Falduto will join fellow Penn State commit Izzy Starck in Orlando later this year for the prestigious annual exhibition, which brings together more than two dozen of the nation’s best high school seniors for several days of training and competition. Falduto discussed her experience at the Chicago camp and her excitement for the main event in an exclusive interview with DigNittanyVolleyball.

“It was overall a really fun experience,” Falduto said. “Being surrounded by a ton of really talented athletes made the environment really competitive. The coaches who ran the camp were all amazing, and I had a lot of fun competing with girls who I had just competed against at nationals the day before. It was great being on the same side of the net as them.”

Falduto and Starck will receive piles of Under Armour gear and have access to the latest recovery technology while in Florida. The event is typically held around the end of December, but the final dates for this year’s Under Armour festivities have yet to be released. Starck earned her invite at the Louisville camp on March 3, the first of six stops this spring and summer. The Southern California camp will wrap things up on July 28.

“Being selected for the UA match is something younger me would have never imagined,” Falduto said. “I used to watch the games growing up and would watch replays on YouTube, and it’s always a goal I have strived to reach. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I am so grateful I have this chance to compete with talent from across the country on TV.”

Falduto, a 5-foot-7 libero from Elmhurst, Illinois, began Penn State’s 2024 recruiting class when she verbally committed to the Nittany Lions on June 19, 2022. Starck, a 6-foot-1 setter who recently moved to Florida and will play her senior season at Viera High School, committed to Penn State two days later. Falduto led IC Catholic Prep to a state runner-up finish in the 2A classification as a junior last fall.

Starck and her older sister, Anjelina, a junior outside hitter for the Nittany Lions, won a Colorado 5A state championship at Rampart High School in May 2021, when Anjelina was a senior and Izzy was a freshman. They both were named Gatorade Colorado Volleyball Player of the Year and first-team Under Armour All-Americans, though Anjelina’s class was unfortunately unable to participate in the showcase due to COVID.

Penn State players on the 2023 roster who competed in the match include Alexa Markley, Macy Van Den Elzen, and Jess Mruzik, who was named MVP in 2019. It will be exciting to see whether Falduto and Starck are placed on the same team. Here’s a rundown of last year’s schedule of events. The week culminates in an exhibition at UCF’s volleyball venue on ESPNU.

“I am really excited to play in the game with Izzy,” Falduto said. “I think it will be really fun, and I can’t wait to play together again before getting to Penn State.”

Starck and Falduto participated in Penn State volleyball’s second annual 7 Star Camp June 11 at Rec Hall, where they competed alongside many top prospects from the 2025, 2026, and 2027 recruiting classes. It was Falduto’s second year in a row attending the camp, while Starck had a conflicting club tournament with the Colorado Juniors last year. Falduto switched from New WAVE to 1st Alliance VBC prior to this spring’s club season.

Falduto and Starck helped the United States win gold at the 2023 NORCECA U19 Pan American Cup in Puerto Rico this May. It was Falduto’s first time representing her country in international competition and Starck’s second, as she also won gold at the 2022 U19 Pan American Cup in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The Penn State commits, who will enroll early at the university in January 2024, are among 19 players selected for training camp July 21-29 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, ahead of the 2023 FIVB U19 World Championship August 1-11 in Croatia and Hungary.

Starck, Falduto, and five others return from this year’s U19 Pan American Cup team, which went 5-0 and swept every opponent it faced. Falduto was named Best Receiver of the tournament. Now, she will compete with Nebraska commit Olivia Mauch for the libero job and one of 12 spots on the U19 World Championship team. Wisconsin commit Charlie Fuerbringer and Nebraska commit Campbell Flynn are the other setters joining Starck in training camp.

You can read our wide-ranging interview with Falduto following Penn State’s 3-1 win over UCF in the NCAA tournament here. Falduto covered a host of topics, like her affinity for Chicago staple Portillo’s, her admiration for Michael Jordan, and her dream of one day playing in the Olympics.