Six Penn State women’s volleyball players are among more than 200 college athletes who will participate in this weekend’s U.S. national team open program February 24-26 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Alexa Markley, Allie Holland, and Zoe Weatherington, who played prominent roles for the Nittany Lions in 2022, will be joined by recent roster additions in Jess Mruzik, Cam Hannah, and Ally Van Eekeren. Katie Schumacher-Cawley will observe the action as one of roughly four dozen coaches, including Notre Dame’s Salima Rockwell, invited to staff the event.

Good luck to our 🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁 in Colorado! 🇺🇸 #WeAre pic.twitter.com/KYcgvz5xtT

— Penn State Women’s Volleyball (@PennStateVBALL) February 23, 2023

Olympic gold medalist Jordyn Poulter, a setter from Illinois, and fellow U.S. women’s national team regular Morgan Hentz, a libero from Stanford, will speak at the event, which serves as a tryout for the national team and collegiate national team.

Weatherington, Kashauna Williams, and Anjelina Starck represented the Nittany Lions at last year’s open program, which was also held in late February at the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Williams recently began her pro career in Puerto Rico with Las Criollas de Caguas, where she reunited with Penn State teammate Seleisa Elisaia.

Holland is coming off an excellent junior season that saw her earn first-team All-Big Ten recognition. She was the only Nittany Lion to receive that distinction last fall. Holland is one of the best returning middle blockers in the conference, so the stiff competition this weekend will only serve to benefit the Hilliard, Ohio, native.

Markley was among seven players named to the Big Ten All-Freshman team after

recording 165 kills, 36 total blocks, and 24 digs in her debut campaign for the Nittany Lions. The Peachtree City, Georgia, standout visibly gained confidence as the season went on, showing Penn State’s coaching staff she could handle the increased workload. Markley is one of the more intriguing players on the roster heading into the 2023 season.

Weatherington was part of Schumacher-Cawley’s extremely successful first transfer portal class last offseason, joining Williams, Elisaia, and Taylor Trammell, all of whom started a significant amount of matches and led the team in various stat categories. Weatherington was second on the team in both kills (305) and total blocks (90). Her return to Penn State for her fifth and final college season this fall was a major win for the coaching staff.

Mruzik, Hannah, and Van Eekeren are among five high-profile players who have picked the Nittany Lions from the transfer portal this winter. Reigning Big Ten Setter of the Year Mac Podraza from Ohio State and Coastal Carolina libero Lina Perugini also committed to joining the Penn State program after the spring semester. Michella Chester of NCAA Digital called Penn State the “outright winner” of the transfer portal this offseason.

Mruzik is a two-time first-team All-Big Ten outside hitter who will graduate from Michigan this spring before bringing two years of eligibility with her to University Park. Mruzik’s addition to the program gives the Nittany Lions a veteran attacker who averaged 4.19 points per set last season. After facing each other as rivals the last few years, Mruzik and Podraza must be excited to finally team up and show the Big Ten what they can do together.

Hannah, who hails from Schumacher-Cawley’s hometown of Chicago, was a two-time second-team All-ACC selection at Clemson during three prolific seasons with the Tigers. Penn State listed Hannah as a right-side hitter in the graphic accompanying news of her transfer. She’s already tallied 961 kills and 419 digs at the college level and, like Mruzik, has two years of eligibility remaining. Both have an AVCA All-American honorable mention nod on their resume as well.

Van Eekeren played three seasons at Creighton and spent last fall at High Point,

where she was named the Big South Setter of the Year and obviously nabbed a spot on the conference’s first team. Van Eekeren visited Penn State’s campus the same weekend as Podraza, and clearly both were sold on the coaching staff’s vision for their final season of eligibility. To land two highly coveted setters from the transfer portal speaks to Schumacher-Cawley’s ability to close on the recruiting trail.

Holland, Markley, Weatherington, Mruzik, Hannah, and Van Eekeren will have the chance to spend some quality time together this weekend in Colorado Springs and begin building chemistry for the 2023 season, which is shaping up to be quite an entertaining campaign for fans of Penn State volleyball.