Russ Rose Then (2004): “Sam has the potential to not only be the best setter in the country, but to demonstrate the type of leader she has become, becuase that is going to be her biggest challenge this year. She is going to be interacting with younger players in the middle and on the outside and it’s going to be a big challenge for her to be able to lead those players as well as perform her duties as assigned. It will be a good challenge for Sam. From a setting standpoint, I think she has established herself as one of the nation’s finest and she represents Penn State in a great fashion.”
Russ Rose Now (2025): “Sam Tortorello came from Sports Performance, which was one of the top club programs in the country and had great success training players. In addition, she came from a family where all of the girls played volleyball — her older sister, Liz, was the starting setter at Wisconsin a few years earlier. Sam had good size, and long arms, and big hands, and she had a great feel for the game. So Sam was a really talented kid, who was able to come in and hit the ground running and start right away. She is on the long list of All-American setters we’ve had that went to the national team — Ellen Hensler, Salima Rockwell, Alisha Glass, and Micha Hancock. Bonnie Bremner could have done it, but it wasn’t what she wanted to do with her life when she was done playing at Penn State. I think Sam had her own level for who she was and what she did. She was an All-American in club, and in high school, and in college. She was a really good volleyball player and had a great career.”
2004 Season (Junior) Highlights and Awards: Honda Volleyball Award Finalist … AVCA First Team All-America … AVCA First Team All-Mideast Region … unanimous First Team All-Big Ten … unanimous Preseason All-Big Ten … Big Ten Player of the Week (9/20) … Penn State Classic Most Valuable Player … with her 91 combined assists versus Indiana and Purdue on Oct. 29-30, she surpassed 4,000 assists for her career, joining All-Americans Michelle Jaworski, Bonnie Bremner, Salima Davidson and Ellen Hensler as the only five Penn State players in history to reach the plateau … ended the season ranked 5th on Penn State’s all-time career assists chart with 4,603 assists … following her 1526 assists for the 2004 season, she ranked 7th on Penn State’s all-time single-season chart, 2nd on the single-season assists per set list with 14.00, and 1st on the career assists per set list with 13.34
Season Recap: Played in all 32 matches and 109 sets … averaged 1.27 kills/set, 14.00 assists/set, 0.28 service aces/set, 3.03 digs/set, and 0.93 blocks/set … led the team in service aces with 30 … balanced the offense in a way that not one of her five hitters averaged fewer than 4.61 attacks per set or more than 11.07 attacks per set … … recorded 15 double-doubles (assists and digs) for the season … recorded at least 4 digs in every match of the season, including 16 double-digit dig contests … notched a season-high 18 digs at Stanford (9/10) … dished out at least 35 assists in every match … posted a career-high 74 assists vs. Ohio State (10/20) … recorded at least one block in 30 of 32 matches, including 25 multiple-block contests … fell one block shyof her career-high with eight blocks at Minnesota (11/5) … recorded at least one kil in all 32 matches, including 31 multiple-kill contests.
NCAA Tournament: posted her first career triple-double (10 kills, 52 assists, 15 digs) against Maryland (12/4) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament
Before Penn State: Volleyball Magazine’s “Fab 50” selection; a four-year letterwinner at Joliet Catholic Academny in Joliet, Illinois; two-time captain for the Angels; also a member of Sports Performance for eight years (1994-2002); led Sports Performance 18-1 to 2002 AAU National Championship; Chicago Sun-Times 2001 Player of the Year for Volleyball; 2000 USA Youth National Team member; four-time AAU All-America honoree; 2001 AAU Most Valuable Player; member of the 2000 Junior Olympic All-Tournament team; led Sports Performance to a second-place finish at the National Junior Classic in 2000 and first place finishes at the National Junior Classic and AAU Nationals and claimed the Junior Olympic Silver Division championship in 2001; named Best Setter at the the 2000, 2001, and 2002 National Junior Classic; member of the National Honor Society, Student Council, and earned a high school leadership scholarship.
“Senior week is special,” The Daily Collegian, Oct. 10, 2005