Aug. 20, 2016
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State women's volleyball All-American alums Alisha Glass and Christa (Harmotto) Dietzen earned a Bronze medal with the United States Women's National Team Saturday afternoon at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Having played key roles for Team USA throughout the event, Glass and Dietzen helped the United States to a 3-1 (25-23, 25-27, 25-22, 25-19) win against the Netherlands to clinch The Americans' second Bronze medal since the 1992 games in Barcelona, Spain. Team USA went 6-0 through Pool play before a close 3-2 loss to Serbia in the semifinals moved the United States to 6-1 heading into the Bronze medal match. The United States has defeated the Netherlands in each of the last four meetings, including a 3-2 win in Pool play on Aug. 8.
"In a way, selfishly, I wanted a gold medal to almost prove the way this culture is, or the way the culture has grown and the foundation that we've built, almost to prove it right -- that the way we did it was right," Dietzen said. "A medal's not going to prove that. A medal doesn't define this team. It will never define this team."
Penn State women's volleyball now has four Olympic medalists in Nittany Lion program history as Glass earns her first and Dietzen picks up her second consecutive. Having previously earned Silver with the U.S. at the 2012 Games in London, Dietzen is Penn State's first women's volleyball alum to win two Olympic medals as a member of the 12-woman roster.
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.
Along with Dietzen and Glass, the Nittany Lions' Rio competitors have earned five medals thus far. The five medals ties the total earned by Penn Staters at the 2012 Olympic games in London. Glass and Dietzen's bronze medals also bring Penn State's total number of Olympic medalists to 34 all-time.
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 earned Penn State's 32nd Olympic medal all-time, Aug. 18th. Kovacs earned a silver medal in the men's shot put with a throw of 21.78m (71'-5.50") to become the first silver medalist for Penn State since Mike Shine who won a silver medal in the 400-meter hurdles at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Canada.
Nittany Lions men's volleyball standout alums Matt Anderson, Max Holt and Aaron Russell have also advanced to the bronze medal match, following a close 3-2 semifinal loss to Italy. The U.S. will play Russia Sunday, Aug. 20 at 8:30 a.m. ET live on NBC. Penn State's three U.S. men's volleyball squad members will also be seeking the first Olympic medals by members of the Penn State men's volleyball program.
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.
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.