May 7, 2015
ROSEMONT, Ill. - Penn State women's volleyball's Aiyana Whitney (Norwood, N.J.) will participate in the Big Ten Volleyball Foreign Tour, as announced by the league this afternoon. For the first time in conference history, Big Ten volleyball student-athletes from all 14 schools will travel overseas to both compete, and participate in community services initiatives.
Whitney and the Big Ten Volleyball Foreign Tour Team will travel to Slovenia, Croatia and Italy this summer June 13-25.
Whitney recently helped the Nittany Lions to their second consecutive and seventh NCAA national championship in program history last year. She highlighted the 2014 season with second team AVCA All-America honors, while also earning All-Big Ten honorable mention and AVCA All-Region distinction. Having started every match last year, she quickly emerged as one of Penn State's top offensive attackers, recording 15 double-digit kill performances and leading the team in kills on 11 occasions. Her .364 hitting percentage closed out the year ranked third in the conference.
During the season, she was honored as the Big Ten Player of the Week (11/17) after helping PSU to a pair of straight set wins against Iowa and Minnesota. She capped off a standout year with 10 kills against top-ranked Stanford in the NCAA national semifinals and 11 kills in the national championship victory against BYU.
The Big Ten Foreign Tour Team is set to make its first stop in Maribor, Slovenia, where the team will square off against four national teams. Next, the squad travels to several cities in Croatia, before heading to Italy to take on the Italian National Team.
Off the court, each student-athlete will have the opportunity to partake in community service initiatives, study foreign languages with local students and visit some of Europe's most historic cities, including Ljubljana in Slovenia, Istra, Pula, Rovinj and Porec in Croatia, and Padova and Venice in Italy.
Including Whitney, the Big Ten Foreign Tour Team includes Illinois' Jocelynn Birks, Indiana's Megan Tallman, Iowa's Jess Janota, Maryland's Hailey Murray, Michigan's Adeja Lambert, Michigan State's Halle Peterson, Minnesota's Alyssa Goehner, Nebraska's Justine Wong-Orantes, Northwestern's Maddie Slater, Ohio State's Taylor Sandbothe, Purdue's Annie Drews, Rutgers' Meme Fletcher and Wisconsin's Kelli Bates.
Northwestern's Keylor Chan will serve as the team's head coach, while Indiana's Paul Koncir and Rutgers' Phuong Louong will travel as assistant coaches. Michigan State's Lianna Hadden will accompany the team as an athletic trainer.
