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

Russ Rose and freshman outside hitter Anjelina Starck fielded questions ahead of Penn State’s annual Dig Pink match against Rutgers Friday at 7:30 p.m. The Nittany Lions, who dropped two spots to No. 15 in this week’s AVCA rankings, swept the Scarlet Knights on September 24 in Piscataway.

Starck was one of the nation’s top prospects from the 2021 recruiting class and received several impressive accolades during her high school career, including Colorado’s Gatorade State Player of the Year and Under Armour All-American honors.

Starck had her two best performances of the season so far last weekend against Nebraska and Northwestern, combining for 18 digs, 17 kills, four blocks, and two assists in a loss to the Huskers and win over the Wildcats. Starck made her first career start against Northwestern.

Russ Rose

What are your thoughts on Rutgers having already played them this season?

“The thing about playing teams a second time is it [allows] both teams to adjust on things that they felt worked and things that didn’t go as well as planned. Every team in the conference presents different challenges for teams. It’s matchups. I think that’s kind of how it is. A couple years ago, we beat Wisconsin and lost to Nebraska. That’s kind of how that goes. It’s how you play, and every match has its own heartbeat.”

Do you anticipate Anjelina continuing to contribute in the way she has recently?

“I certainly hope that Anjelina will continue to contribute. She always works hard in practice and has a good attitude and good feel for the game. I thought she did a real nice job when the others didn’t play as well as they or I would have liked.”

How do you feel about your team’s serving right now?

“It’s been one of the weaker skills that we have going on right now. We have to have a way better focus on the service game. Both teams this past weekend, their numbers were better than ours in serving and passing. You don’t ever have to really go much further than that. That gives you an opportunity, especially if the other team is more physical than you. If you’re the team that has a better chance of success going into the match, you need to serve in to not give them life, but for sure I think we need to be more committed to a more aggressive serving attitude.”

You’ve said before that administrative support is really important. Do you think you’re getting the proper level of support from the athletic department?

“I mean, I don’t want to comment on that. I don’t think this is the forum for that. I think there’s a correlation between support and opportunity for success.”

What are some things that you think the teams needs to improve heading into this weekend’s matches against Rutgers and Purdue?

“The first match with Rutgers, that was the first [Big Ten] match for everybody. Everybody’s changed. That’s five matches ago. They had a tough match a couple days ago with Indiana, and we had a tough match with Indiana. I think that just kind of identifies that you have to be ready to play and you have to be good at the skill set each player is required to possess.”

What stands out to you about Purdue?

“Purdue has six or seven seniors and fifth-year kids who I think give them a lot of optimism for the season. They lost to Louisville, but Louisville is one of the two undefeated teams in the country, so that seems to be a little more palatable. They split with Illinois, as they did last year. I think Purdue is one of the teams that I thought would be competing for a championship this year. They have everybody back. They have great back-row contributions. They’re always very competitive. I think the staff does a good job with preparing the team. They always compete hard.”

What other career paths did you consider before getting into coaching?

“Well, I worked in the resort business before I got into coaching. I liked it a lot. It was a great career.”

What do you think about the Dig Pink match and its importance?

“I think so many people are impacted by cancer. The Dig Pink match has always been a really important match for us and the players. I hope we continue to have good support and people participate. I believe they auction off the jerseys or warmup shirts to help raise money for the cause. There has been a lot of advancement in research for breast cancer, but it still impacts lots of people. I think it’s really positive that we have an opportunity to try and help raise some funds to assist in their studies and try and find a cure.”

It seems that you’ve played some more players the last couple matches. How important will that be moving forward as far as getting them experience?

“I don’t play people to get experience. I’m playing people to try and get performance. We practice four times a week and play twice a week. The players have twice the amount of opportunities to demonstrate either they should or shouldn’t be playing. Most of the time when I’m subbing people in, it’s because I’m hopeful that they’re going to make things better. A couple times this year, that’s backfired. I should have known better at times, but you take the optimistic thought that they’re going to make a great contribution and be ready to play. Sometimes, coaching is a hit-and-miss proposition as well.”

What are some of the most enjoyable aspects of coaching to you?

“I just think interacting with young people and trying to give them some guidance in managing their life and managing being a student-athlete and trying to get the teams to play at their highest level. Some years, we’ve been at the top of the heap. Some years, we’ve been looking up at other schools. The enjoyment is that when you have players who are committed to the cause and believe in what they’re capable of doing, you can try and impact them in a positive way.”

Anjelina Starck

What was it like winning a state championship with your younger sister, Izzy, last year?

“Oh, that was amazing, because ever since 12-and-under, the first time we got to play together, she was mostly on the bench. She got in a couple points, but that’s one thing I wanted to do ever since I knew we would have a chance to play together for one year, so that was so much fun.”

How has Jonni Parker been a mentor to you?

“She’s been awesome, because I’ve always been watching her and I’ve always wanted to play like her and have her attitude. She always works super hard during practice. She goes for every ball and she’s a player who I’ve wanted to play like.”

What are some things you’ve learned from the other outside hitters?

“Definitely different shots, because it’s so much different in college compared to club and high school in where you can hit. Just learning how to hit different shots and watching them and how they do it.”

What do you like about the atmosphere in Rec Hall? What’s it like playing in that environment?

“It brings so much more energy when we’re playing and we all feel the support that there is. It makes it so much more fun.”

What are the best things you’ve learned so far from the coaching staff?

“Just how to play in the environment that I’m in, because coach always tells me, ‘Just take a deep breath’ and play how I know how to play, because I’ve never played in front of this many people. Just learning that is the biggest thing.”

Is there any story behind picking No. 10?

“In club, I won a national championship in USA division and I was No. 10, so I decided to pick that number again.”

How have your parents been influential in your life as far as volleyball and otherwise?

“At first, they put me in all different sports, because they played volleyball. I wanted to play that, so they started me with that. Ever since then, I’ve loved it. It’s been nice growing up, because whenever I wanted to work on something, they would bring me into the gym and they could just serve at me, they could hit at me, and just work with me on whatever I wanted to.”

What’s it like being with the rest of the freshman class and spending time with them on and off the court?

“I love everybody in the freshman class. We’re all super close and we get along so well together, so it makes it really fun.”