Penn State Volleyball Announces 2025 Regular Season Schedule

Posted on by Ethan Kasales

The Penn State women’s volleyball program announced its entire 30-match 2025 regular season schedule Wednesday, which notably includes nine straight home matches from early September to early October.

The Nittany Lions are among 10 teams invited to this year’s AVCA First Serve, where they will face Creighton Saturday, August 23 at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska, in a rematch of last season’s NCAA regional finals. Penn State will also play Kansas on Monday, August 25 at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to wrap up the season-opening showcase.

Next, Katie Schumacher-Cawley’s Nittany Lions head to PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh for the State Farm Women’s College Volleyball Showcase. Penn State will play Arizona State on Sunday, August 31 at 5 p.m. ET before facing TCU at the same time the following day. Pitt, which later travels to Rec Hall on Wednesday, September 17, will also be part of the four-team event held at the home of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Kentucky and its star outside hitter duo of Brooklyn DeLeye and Eva Hudson provide quite an intriguing matchup for the Nittany Lions in their home opener Friday, September 5. Penn State reverse-swept the Wildcats early last season at the newly renovated Memorial Coliseum in Lexington.

Bucknell, located in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, about 70 miles from University Park, will travel to Rec Hall during non-conference play, as will Penn State alumna Arielle Wilson’s Central Michigan team. Wilson, a four-time NCAA national champion middle blocker for the Nittany Lions from 2007-10, was named head coach of the Chippewas’ volleyball program in January.

Penn State will begin Big Ten play with five of its first six conference matches at home, including USC’s and UCLA’s first trips to Rec Hall as Big Ten programs on September 26 and 28, respectively. Penn State’s two biggest home matches of the 2025 regular season occur within a week span in early October, as contests against Nebraska on October 3 and Wisconsin on October 10 are sure to draw the focus of the college volleyball world.

After welcoming Oregon and Washington to Rec Hall for the first time as Big Ten programs last fall, Penn State will travel west to Seattle and Eugene this year, October 17-18, during its longest away trip of the season. Penn State alumna Alexa Markley, who graduated from the university this spring after only three years, transferred to the Huskies for her final season of indoor volleyball in 2025 and will have the chance to play against some of her former teammates.

Penn State’s double-plays in Big Ten action this year are Nebraska, Ohio State, and Maryland. The conference examines a variety of factors, including historical rivalries, regional ties, and competitive balance, when deciding which three teams each volleyball program will play both home and away each year.

Coming off a 35-2 season in which Penn State won its eighth NCAA national championship in Louisville, Kentucky, defeating the host Cardinals in four sets, Schumacher-Cawley and her staff did an excellent job adding talent to the 2025 roster this offseason. They signed three players via the transfer portal and five high school recruits last November.

Four true freshmen enrolled early this January — Gabby Nichols, Lexi Gin, Marin Collins, and Ava Jurevicius — allowing them the opportunity to participate in spring practices and get acclimated to their new surroundings. All four received playing time in Penn State’s final exhibition match of the spring, a 4-0* win over Maryland on April 19 in Rec Hall’s South Gym. *The coaching staffs decided ahead of time to play at least four sets.

The Nittany Lions also traveled to Army West Point for a closed-doors scrimmage and hosted Pitt in a five-set loss at Rec Hall. Despite the setback to the in-state Panthers, it was the first televised spring volleyball match in Big Ten Network history, and continued to showcase the rapidly growing national interest in the game.

Outside hitter Emmi Sellman enrolled in classes at Penn State this spring and impressed with her versatile skill set, while setter Addie Lyon and right-side hitter Kennedy Martin are scheduled to arrive in State College shortly. Alexis Ewing, the final member of Penn State’s 2025 recruiting class, who recently graduated from the Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland, will also be joining her new teammates on campus soon.