Aug. 18, 2016
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.ââ'¬" A pair of former Penn State women's volleyball All-Americans will be playing for the Bronze medal on Saturday at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Christa (Harmotto) Dietzen and Alisha Glass have played an instrumental role for the United States Women's National Team, which suffered its first loss in Rio on Thursday afternoon, 3-2, to Serbia in the semifinals.
The U.S. will face the loser of the China-Netherlands match (which begins Thursday at 9:15 p.m.) in Saturday's Bronze medal contest. The match begins Saturday at noon ET and will air on MSNBC.
Dietzen and Glass will be looking to help the U.S. Women's Volleyball team earn a medal for the third consecutive Olympics and the fifth time overall since 1984. The U.S. won Bronze in 1984 and 1992 and Silver in 2008 and 2012. Dietzen and former Nittany Lion standout Megan (Hodge) Easy were members of the 2012 U.S. squad, while Glass was an alternate.
Easy and another Penn State standout, Nicole Fawcett, are alternates on the 2016 U.S. women's volleyball squad.
Dietzen and Glass have helped the U.S. to a 6-1 record in Rio, with a 5-0 mark in group play and a quarterfinal win over Japan before today's tough loss to Serbia. Glass has started all seven matches for Team USA at the setting position. Prior to the semifinal matchup, Glass was ranked Best Setter with a 10.91 running sets average (251 running sets on 552 total set attempts).
From Hopewell Township, Pa., Dietzen was a two-time first-team All-American and the 2008 CoSIDA Academic All-American of the Year in women's volleyball. From Leland, Mich., Glass also was a two-time first-team All-American for the Nittany Lions.
Dietzen and Glass were instrumental in helping Penn State win four consecutive NCAA Championships from 2007-10. Glass was a member of the initial three national title squads and Dietzen was a member of the first two squads, playing for Hall of Fame Coach Russ Rose.
Led by three former Nittany Lion standouts -- Matt Anderson, Max Holt and Aaron Russell -- the U.S. men's volleyball team also has advanced to the semifinals in Rio. The U.S. will meet Italy on Friday at 12 p.m. ET on NBC. Penn State's three U.S. men's volleyball squad members are the most among all colleges and universities.
Penn State has a school record contingent of 25 in Rio, which includes 18 competitors (16 student-athletes), three coaches and four alternates, representing the United States, Mexico, Ireland, Japan and the U.S. Virgin Islands. With 12 first-time competitors in Rio, the Nittany Lions have had a total of 109 student-athlete Olympians all-time.
Penn State's 12 active competitors on Team USA leads the Big Ten and are tied for No. 6 among all colleges and universities, according to the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). The Nittany Lions are tied with Georgia, North Carolina, Oregon and Princeton with 12 Team USA members for the Rio Olympics.
The Nittany Lions' Rio competitors have earned two medals thus far. Former fencing All-American Miles Chamley-Watson delivered the 30th Olympic medal by a Penn State student-athlete on August 12, as he helped the United States men's foil team defeat Italy to win the bronze medal. Another fencing All-American, Monica Aksamit, helped the U.S. women's saber squad also beat Italy to win the bronze medal on Aug. 13, earning the Nittany Lions' 31st Olympic medal all-time.
Former Penn State All-American Joe Kovacs advanced to tonight's shot put finals, which begin at 7:30 p.m. ET. Former Nittany Lion Darrell Hill also represented the U.S. but did not advance to the finals.
The final Nittany Lion to begin competition is Frank Molinaro, who won't take to the wrestling mat until Sunday, the final day of the Rio Olympics. Action begins at 7:30 a.m. ET with coverage on USA Network, with the finals starting at 12:30 p.m. on NBCSN. A Penn State assistant wrestling coach and 2012 NCAA Champion, Molinaro won the U.S. Olympic Trials title in the 65kg men's freestyle wrestling. Molinaro also captured the Freestyle World Cup title at 65kg in June.
The closing ceremonies for the Rio Olympics are Sunday night.
Not including the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, where 65 countries did not participate, Penn State has sent athletes to each Summer Olympics since 1948, a streak of 17 consecutive Games. Penn State sent a then-school record 17 competitors and coaches to the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
In addition to the NBC Television networks, coverage of the Olympics can also be found on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports App.
The complete schedule for Penn State Athletics' competitors and coaches and more can be found at the Nittany Lions' Rio Olympics Central: http://www.gopsusports.com/olympians/rio-2016.html