Sept. 21, 2009
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Senior outside hitter Megan Hodge (Durham, N.C.) was named the Big Ten Player of the Week, conference officials announced Monday.
The honor is the sixth of Hodge's career and brings Penn State's total Big Ten Player of the Week accolades to 66 since joining the conference for the 1991 season. It is also the third weekly honor for the squad this season as freshman outside hitter Darcy Dorton (Muncie, Ind.) has been honored twice as the conference freshman of the week.
Hodge guided the Nittany Lions to three 3-0 victories to finish out the non-conference schedule this past weekend keeping Penn State (12-0) undefeated before entering Big Ten play on Sept. 25. On Friday, Sept. 18 at Temple, Hodge tied for first on the team with 11 kills on .529 hitting and had two blocks and four digs. On Saturday, she tallied 15 kills with a .590 attack percentage and nine saves against Saint Francis (Pa.). Hodge concluded the weekend with a season-high 24 kills while hitting .538 against the Owls on Saturday evening. She also notched an ace, two blocks and four digs.
For the weekend, Hodge led the team with 50 kills, an average of 5.56 a set, on .543 hitting with 17 digs (1.89 digs per set) and four blocks.
Other Big Ten honorees this week included Michigan State's Allyson Karaba as the Defensive Player of the Week and Emily Danks of Ohio State and Ariel Turner of Purdue as Co-Freshman of the Week.
The top-ranked Nittany Lions open their Big Ten slate this weekend with matches at Northwestern (9/25) and Illinois (9/26). Both matches are set to begin at 7 p.m. Penn State hosts Iowa on October 2 in its Big Ten home opener at 7 p.m. in Rec Hall.