Russ Rose Then (2003): “We are going to depend on Cara to do a number of things this season. She was an All-American last season and was one of the top players in the conference. She is a great offensive player, especially in an environment where the opponent knows she is going to be hitting the slide and she still is able to terminate the ball at a high rate, both in and out of the conference. Much of that has to do with how competitive a person she is. She has made strides to increase her offensive potential to hit different sets, which is going to make her a more dangerous player. Cara has all of the tools and has worked hard enough to contend for Player of the Year consideration.”
Russ Rose Now (2025): “Cara was an exceptional volleyball and basketball player at Harrison High School in Indiana, and certainly was one of the most competitive players that we had in the program. She never backed down from competition and she wanted the ball. Cara was very mature as an athlete and as a person. One can assume that all teams are filled with Alphas who are really competitive human beings, who hate to lose more than anything, and Cara was all that as a freshman. But she didn’t play like a freshman. She competed in practice, and she competed in matches, and she was somebody that we knew we wanted to get the ball to in key times. She was skilled at all facets of her game. At the net, with her basketball background, she was especially good off of one foot. She was one of our top attackers because she was so good off of one foot. She did this ‘take off and go,’ and we had good setting — first with Jessica Hayden and Shannon Bortner, and then with Sam Tortorello — and she would be able to score and do things to give us a chance to win. She was running slides like Teri Zemaitis had for us a few seasons earlier, and like players like Ari Wilson, who led the nation in hitting, and Christa Harmotto, who did some amazing things, did a bit later, but Cara was every bit as terminal an attacker as those players. Like all those players, Cara was quick, and she was strong in the air, and her hitting the slide was money for us a lot of times. She was terrific. She married a middle blocker from the men’s team and they have two daughters. She’s involved in coaching and they live up in New York.”
2003 Season (Senior) Highlights and Awards: First Team AVCA All-America … First Team All-Big Ten … Academic All-America … one of only 4 Nittany Lions in history to record more tha 1,000 career kis and 500 career blocks, joining Lauren Cacciamani (1996-99), Terri Zemaitis (1994-97), and JoAnn Elwell (1987-90) as the only Penn Staters to accomplish the feat.
Season Recap: Started all 36 matches in the season, and played in all 129 sets … led the team with a .381 hitting percentage and was second in kills/set with 3.84 … 2nd on the team with 25 aces … 1st on the team with 4.66 p0ints/set, and 2nd on the team with 1.16 blocks/set … averaged 0.95 digs/set.
Before Penn State: A four-year starter at middle hitter and three-time captain at Harrison High School; was a member of the Junior National team in the summer of 1999; in 1998, led high school team to a school-record 31 wins and a state final four appearance; played in the 2000 Indiana State All Games in both volleyball and basketball; also lettered four years in basketball and one year in track.
“Smith eclipses 1000-kill milestone in Lions’ weekend win,” The Daily Collegian, Sept. 22, 2003