Russ Rose Then (2002): “Jess has made some great contributions to the program over the last two years. She’s battled the last couple of years as the starting setter and has won some big matches for us. She will hopefully continue to develop and mature as a player and improve her feel for the needs of the team as well as the level of competition that we are playing in. She is our best server and we will depend on her in various ways this season.”
Russ Rose Now (2025): “Jessica was a great recruit for us –kind of an outlier, because I didn’t recruit a lot of players from California and she came from the San Diego area. She was a prototype left-handed setter, very physically strong, had a good serve — at one point her serve was our best serve — she played good defense, and she contributed right away as a freshman. During her first two seasons she split time at setter with Shannon Bortner. Jess set most of the time and was very good at it. We had some great wins with her setting. Then Sam Tortorello joined the team in 2002 and took over as the starting setter. Jess was a very valuable player for us. She was physical, she played hard, she always had great confidence, and she made significant contributions to the team’s success.”
2002 Stats Leaders
2002 Season (Junior): Academic All-Big Ten … played in 66 sets and 28 matches, starting three … began the season as the primary setter and finished the year with 1.85 assists/set, including dishing out a season-high 51 assists in a four-set win over Akron (8/31) … one of the team’s toughest servers, totaled 13 for the season, including posting three aces against Yale (9/22) … also notched multiple-ace matches at Michigan State (11/1) and at Michigan (11/2) with two apiece … recorded 20 digs for the season, including 5 digs against Akron (8/31).
Before Penn State: Selected to Volleyball Magazine Fab 50 Squad squad; named to the All Power Bar Team in 1999; member of the 1999 Youth National Team that placed sixth at World Championships in Madiera, Portugal.
“Hayden solidifies PSU setter position,” The Daily Collegian, Aug. 30, 2001
“Senior nears end of journey,” The Daily Collegian, Nov. 18, 2004