Sept. 22, 2009
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Senior outside hitter Megan Hodge (Durham, N.C.) was honored as this week's Sports Imports/AVCA Division I National Player of the Week a day after being selected as the Big Ten Player of the Week.
The honor is the first of the season for the No. 1 Penn State women's volleyball team and the second national honor of Hodge's career. She was also recognized on Sept. 10, 2007. It is also the seventh honor in Penn State history as Syndie Nadeau was honored on Nov. 8, 2004, Sam Tortorello on Oct. 3, 2005 and current senior setter Alisha Glass (Leland, Mich.) has been selected on three occasions.
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. The Nittany Lions extended their NCAA-record winning streak to 76 consecutive matches and improved their home winning streak to 62 straight matches. 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.
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.