Sept. 10, 2007
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State women's volleyball sophomore outside hitter Megan Hodge (Durham, N.C.) has been named the Sports Imports/AVCA Division I National Player of the Week and the Big Ten Player of the Week, officials from the respective organizations announced. It is the first career national honor for Hodge and the fourth conference accolade of her career, as she captured it three times last year as a freshman.
The Sports Imports/AVCA award is the fourth honor for a Penn State athlete as Hodge joins current teammate Alisha Glass (Leland, Mich.), who captured the recognition last season, along with Sam Tortorello (2005) and Syndie Nadeau (2004). Hodge's conference citation brings Penn State's total Big Ten Player of the Week honors to 52 since joining the conference for the 1991 season. It is also the second honor for the Nittany Lions this season as junior middle hitter Christa Harmotto (Aliquippa, Pa.) picked up the accolade on Aug. 27.
Hodge was named the Most Valuable Player of the Penn State Classic after leading the Nittany Lions to sweeps of No. 24 St. John's, Colgate and Virginia Commonwealth over the weekend. Against the Red Storm Friday night, Hodge led all players with 18 kills on .556 hitting, also adding team-highs with two service aces and nine digs. On Saturday morning versus Colgate, Hodge tallied 15 kills while attacking at a .583 clip and adding in nine digs and five blocks. In the final match of the weekend against VCU, the sophomore tallied 12 kills on a .381 hitting percentage, adding 12 digs for her 13th career double-double.
For the weekend, Hodge averaged 5.00 kills per game on the strength of .514 hitting with 3.33 digs per game and 1.22 blocks per game.
Penn State travels to New Haven, Conn., to face host Yale, Delaware State and No. 2 Stanford on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 14-15. All three matches will be available on Gametracker and the Penn State-Yale and Penn State-Stanford matches can be viewed for free on the web.
For more information on the Penn State women's volleyball team, please visit www.GoPSUsports.com.