Penn State women’s volleyball held its fourth weekly media availability of the 2021 season Tuesday afternoon before practice at Rec Hall.

Head coach Russ Rose and senior outside hitter Adanna Rollins discussed a handful of topics prior to the Nittany Lions’ doubleheader Friday against Robert Morris and West Virginia in Morgantown. Penn State dropped two spots to No. 20 in this week’s AVCA rankings following an 0-2 weekend in Eugene, Oregon.

Rollins has started all eight matches so far during non-conference play after transferring to Penn State from Minnesota this offseason. The Carrolton, Texas, native is currently second on the team with 62 digs, showcasing her passing skills as a six-rotation player. Rollins is also a consistent server who rarely misses her target.

Russ Rose

What are your thoughts on last weekend’s matches?

“I thought we were kind of out of sync against Oregon, but I thought Oregon played really well. We made probably nine-plus errors a game. If you do that against a good team, you’re not going to have much success. I thought we played much better [against Stanford]. We had opportunities to win numerous times on Saturday, but Stanford was a little better at the right times. I was pretty disappointed in our effort, more on Saturday than Friday. Friday I can understand, just because it’s one thing to say, ‘Hey, what are you doing? Let’s go to Bellefonte for lunch.’ It’s another thing to say, ‘Let’s get to Eugene, Oregon.’ It’s a little tougher. When the Pac-12 teams come out east, they’re not in school, so they can make it a tour where they go to a number of places and kind of spread it all out. It was pretty compact I thought. We didn’t weather it as well as I thought we should have based on the fact that most of the players are older. Even though a couple of them are newcomers, they have certainly played enough college volleyball to sustain the effort. We have flashes. I thought we looked pretty good a couple weekends ago when we played at home. I thought we took a couple steps back last weekend.”

What are some things you think the team needs to work on heading into this weekend?

“If you make nine or 10 errors on your side of the net, that’s the number one thing, because it doesn’t make a difference who’s on the other side. If you’re giving them 40 percent of their points necessary for victory, you’re kind of your own worst enemy at that point in time. I think we have to be a little more mindful of things that players do. My role in it was I put a couple people in who I thought would do well and they didn’t do well. It’s not all performance-generated. Sometimes, it’s manufactured by mismanagement of personnel.”

What do you think of Anastasiya Kudryashova’s performance lately?

“I thought Nasta and Cassie [Kuerschen] were the two players who I was especially pleased with against Stanford. I thought Jonni [Parker] hit exceptionally well, but I really thought that Nasta came in and did a nice job, and Cassie did a nice job as well.”

What are some things you like about Quinn Menger?

“She has a good serve. I think that’s her best attribute. It’s hard to come off the bench and go in and serve tough. If the team is struggling, you’re more likely to be tentative, which maybe defeats the purpose of putting in somebody who’s a good server if they try and massage their serve instead of doing what they do well. She’s young, but I think she has a good volleyball IQ. Her dad was a coach. I think players who have family members who have coached, not only them, but it opens up the avenue for a lot more interaction and exchange for the mental side of the game.”

How do you feel AC Fitzpatrick has handled her different role so far this season?

“Well, emotionally, she’s always the same. She’s great. She’s a team player all the time. I probably should have put her in there for either of the two outside hitters when they were exhibiting some performance issues. I think AC always practices hard. Her energy is good. She cares about the group. I haven’t forgotten about her, for sure. I have to find a way to get both her and Nasta doing some things that they do well. Maybe the [outside hitter] position is more a committee work instead of identifying starters. I don’t think that’s necessarily something that I’ve ever done before, but this has been an interesting three weeks already.”

What’s your early impression of this weekend’s opponents Robert Morris and West Virginia?

“I don’t really know a great deal. I just got a video to watch of Robert Morris. I’m familiar with their coaches. West Virginia is 8-0. They beat Michigan 3-0. That got not just my attention but a lot of the pollsters’ attention as well, since they’re getting votes. Reed Sunahara is a really good friend of mine, so we talk all the time. I know he’s enjoying his team and they’re playing well. I’ll try and get some opportunity to see some tape and try and have a game plan.”

What are your thoughts on the Big Ten as a whole during non-conference play?

“Wisconsin I think has maybe separated itself from everybody. Nebraska is very strong. They lost to Utah at home a couple days ago and then Utah lost yesterday to Boise State. I think that’s more a reflection of a lot of teams have good players and good coaching and rally score is a scoring system that if the team that should win doesn’t play well and the other team does, whatever gap might have existed at the beginning no longer exists. I think Wisconsin has clearly been ahead, but I had a chance to see Minnesota first-hand this past weekend. Stephanie Samedy is clearly one of the marquee players in the country. As one would expect with Hugh [McCutcheon] as her coach, she’s getting better. I left the match when they were losing 2-1 to Oregon and they came back and won. I haven’t seen all of the teams yet. I’ll see them in time. Ohio State is ranked third in the country. Purdue is ranked high. There are a lot of teams ranked and I’m sure there are a lot of teams that feel that they have a good chance to beat those teams as well. Maybe not Wisconsin, but certainly the [Big Ten] always has some teams that represent the conference and their institutions really well.”

How has your wife, Lori, been a resource for the players over the years?

“Probably most importantly is she can balance out how I am, because I’m a pretty direct person. Although she played for me and coached here for a bit, she’s been around the program for a really long time and she can give the players a lot more guidance in certain things. She’s always very interested when any of the players are [homesick]. She always takes a role in trying to mother them and assist them. She does a great job with trying to help the players in areas that they could use some assistance.”

How do you feel your middle blockers are performing right now?

“I think they’ve been up and down. We can’t expect to have success when we have games and we don’t set the middle. We had two games against Stanford where we didn’t set one of the middles, so that certainly isn’t a good representation of things. The first night, Allie [Holland] had really good numbers offensively against Oregon. I didn’t think either one of them necessarily had great numbers against Stanford.”

How has Macy Van Den Elzen been coming along behind the scenes?

“Macy works hard. I think she’s getting better. People grow physically at different times. She’s kind of had a growth spurt. I was really pleased with her last fall. In the spring, it was like starting over again with a number of the people. Now, she’s had this growth spurt. I think it’s been a little more of a challenge for her than probably she envisioned.”

How have you seen Jenna Hampton improve over the years?

“I think Jenna’s greatest strength is how hard she plays. She flies around all over the place. She had an injury that had to get fixed a couple of years ago that impacted her performance. I thought she started the season out really well. She’s had some days in practice where she’s been our best player. She’s a senior and she needs to play that role all the time.”

What was it like to see Kendall White and Ali Frantti make their U.S. national team debuts at the NORCECA Continental Championship?

“I watched the matches and Kendall was as Kendall always is; worth the price of admission, in my mind, because she’s animated and she’s loud. I thought she played really well. I’ve always felt that Ali has the potential to play [for Team USA]. She’s been playing professionally since she left Penn State. It was always a question of how healthy she could keep herself. She’s long, she plays high, she has a good touch on the ball, she’s a really good blocker. I think Ali can continue to be involved in USA volleyball if that’s what she wants to do and what they elect to do. They have a number of players who — I don’t know if those players are, after the gold medal, electing to continue and play or if it’s time for some new blood to come in. The USA has a very large pool of women, especially who play at the collegiate level, that would be the biggest training ground in the world for players. You have to really make a full-time commitment physically and mentally and really master your craft to stay and play at that sort of level or compete to give yourself a shot at that level.”

How pleased are you to see Nia Reed continuing her pro career in Brazil?

“Nia Reed is always one of my favorite people. All of her career, every day, she had a big smile and cared about others and worked hard. She’s kind of like the guy on the men’s team that was here, Jalen Penrose, in that they’re point scorers. In international volleyball, every team needs people who can score points, and Nia can do that. It will be interesting, because the Brazilian league is a better league than she was in previously. Megan (Hodge) Easy was one of the leading players in the league last year. Deja [McClendon] played there a couple years earlier. I know that the Brazilians take their volleyball very seriously.”

What do you view as some of your ultimate roles as a coach?

“I’ve always felt one of my roles is to be an honest adult and tell the players the truth from the time I’m involved in recruiting until they’re here, over the years that they’re in the program, that I don’t say one thing to get them and then do something different once they get here. I think life is tough. I’ve always made the program challenging for people, especially those who can handle it. I think one of the roles is to be consistent. Some players, I say, ‘Hey, I don’t treat everybody the same. I treat everybody fairly.’ That’s just different than what they might perceive, but I think that’s one of the roles is to do what you can to maintain a high level of performance and do it within the rules that are established. I’ve always made that one of the parameters of our program that we don’t recruit other people’s players, we don’t recruit illegally, and we do what we think is right for the players and the program.”

How important of a recruiting tool is the White Out?

“That would be a question for Coach Franklin. We never get to go to the games because we’re playing, but this Saturday, because we play our matches on Friday, after we play, we’ll bring it on back so that the players can experience that. We don’t have any recruits coming. This is the first year that we don’t have any home weekends with football. The Big Ten is on the hot seat, as far as I’m concerned. They should be a little more aware of what’s going on at the various schools. In this case, I think they were misinformed. I don’t know if I’m going to the game.”

Adanna Rollins

What does it mean to you to be a role model for the next generation of volleyball players?

“It means a lot. I used to look up to all the volleyball players when I was younger. [Stanford’s] Logan Tom was one of my role models growing up. I think it’s a really big impact to have. I think it’s cool and you kind of get to figure it out yourself, then also give feedback to the people who are coming up.”

What’s volleyball culture like in Texas?

“I feel like it’s pretty big. It’s pretty rowdy and it’s serious and competitive. I feel like that’s just kind of how Texas is in general with all sports. It’s really competitive and just a rare breed of athletes.”

After playing on the same Texas Advantage VBC team as Katie Clark, what’s your relationship like with her?

“We’re really good friends. I feel like, as we went to different colleges, we kind of just like fell off, but we are really good friends. Now that she’s on the team with me, it’s really cool and I love it. It’s super fun.”

What are the biggest differences between Hugh McCutcheon and Russ Rose as coaches?

“I don’t know. I guess I would have to say Hugh is all about technique and Coach [Rose] is more competitive and six-on-six-driven and more pursuit, energetic, that’s more of his style.”

What was your experience like at Minnesota and what are you studying in grad school here at Penn State?

“My experience at Minnesota was really good. I enjoyed my three years there. It was an awesome experience. I’m getting my master’s in higher education, so that will be nice. I kind of want to be an academic advisor or help student-athletes, so probably in that department.”

How has Coach Rose’s wife, Lori, been a resource for the players?

“She’s been very helpful. She’s very kind and welcoming. She’ll give us tips on the court whenever she sees us or if she sees something. She’s very nice.”

What’s it like playing with Erika Pritchard and Jonni Parker?

“Really cool. Erika’s awesome. She’s a year older than me, so I get a lot of experience with her, especially with blocking. She’s a really good blocker, so she’s always giving me feedback on that. Jonni as well. We played in the Under Armour match together, so I know her from that. Just to actually get to be around her all day is really cool. She’s a really good leader and she cares about everybody before she even cares about herself, which is super cool.”

What’s your process like for testing shoes during preseason? Do you try a lot of different ones out?

“This season, yes, I did. I tried like three different shoes, but whatever’s comfortable for my feet. My feet are kind of weird.”

What would you say your greatest skills are as a player and what do you need to work on still?

“I think my greatest skills right now are probably hitting and blocking. I think I can work on serve-receive a lot more, like I have really got to get better. I feel like that’s what coach wants me to do is to be the primary passer, so I really have to take control, because I know that people are always going to serve me. I’ve just got to really get into that.”

How would you describe Jenna Hampton as a player?

“I feel like she’s a silent assassin. She’s very quiet, but she just comes out of nowhere and just does her job. She’s a really good player and she’s vocal when she needs to be. That’s how I would describe her.”

What’s your connection like with Gabby Blossom?

“I think it’s really good. Gabby and I have been friends for a long time, so it’s just really easy with her. I can just tell her whatever I need and she’ll tell me what she needs. I feel like it’s a really good combination between us two. She’s a really good leader. She’s always caring about other people just like Jonni. They’re really good captains, seriously. They’re awesome.”

What are you most looking forward to about heading down to West Virginia for a couple matches this Friday?

“I think just getting better. I think every week we’re trying to get better. Even though sometimes the outcomes might not be what we want, we know we just have to keep getting better and trusting each other. That’s what’s going to build us up at the end. It’s early, so we have a lot of time.”