UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Former Penn State women's volleyball greats Micha Hancock and Haleigh Washington are headed to Tokyo for the 2021 Olympic Games after being named to the 12-player Team USA roster on Monday. Another former Nittany Lions great, Megan Courtney, was picked as an alternate.
Hancock, a setter, and Washington, a middle blocker, each made their first U.S. Olympic Team. Penn State is one of three schools with multiple alumni on the roster. Eight of the 12 spots on the team are held by players that went to Big Ten schools.
Hancock, Washington and Courtney teamed up to win Penn State's seventh national title in 2014. It was the final season as a Lion for Hancock, while Megan Courtney was a junior and Washington was a freshman. Hancock was the AVCA National Player of the Year that season, while Courtney was the NCAA Tournament MVP and Washington was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year.
Hancock was a three-time All-American for the Lions while playing on two national championship teams. In addition to her skill at setter, Hancock had the best serve in program history. She still holds Penn State records for career aces (380) and career aces/set (0.76). She has the top four single-season aces totals in Penn State history, including the top spot with 126 as a senior when she averaged just shy of an ace/set at 0.99. She is the record holder for aces in an NCAA Tournament with 22 in four matches in 2012, including a school-record 10 against Binghamton in the opening round. She also ranks fifth in program history in career assists (5,578) and sixth in assists/set (11.16).
At the international level, Hancock has led Team USA to two gold medals at the Pan Am Cup. She was named the MVP and Best Setter while helping the team win titles in both 2017 and 2019.
Washington won three All-America honors while at Penn State from 2014-17 and was on two teams that advanced to the NCAA Final Four. She won two major awards from the Big Ten during her career. The first was Big Ten Freshman of the Year after she hit .463 as a rookie, while the second was Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year after leading the nation with a .503 hitting percentage as a senior.
Washington has seen international success with Team USA, helping the team win gold at the Pan American Cup in 2018. She then was an integral part of the team that won the FIVB Volleyball Nationals League in 2019, qualifying Team USA for the Tokyo Olympics.
Courtney is a libero for Team USA but played outside hitter in her collegiate days. She is one of just eight players in program history to eclipse 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in her career, finishing with 1,154 kills and 1,141 digs. In addition to her Tournament MVP award after leading Penn State to the 2014 national title, Courtney won AVCA Mideast Region Freshman of the Year and Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2012.
Courtney was named the Best Libero while helping Team USA win gold in the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Nationals League. She also helped USA take fifth at the 2018 FIVB World Championships.
The U.S. Women's National Team is ranked No. 1 in the world and currently pursuing its third straight FIVB Volleyball Nations League title in Rimini, Italy. All three Penn State alumni are on that squad.
The 2020 Olympic Games, which were postponed for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, are scheduled to begin on July 23 with the Opening Ceremony. The women's volleyball tournament will commence on July 24.
U.S. Women's Roster for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
No. Name (Pos. Height, Hometown, College)
1 Micha Hancock (S, 5-11, Edmond, Okla., Penn State Univ.)
2 Jordyn Poulter (S, 6-2, Aurora, Colo., Univ. of Illinois)
4 Justine Wong Orantes (L, 5-6, Cypress, Calif., Univ. of Nebraska)
10 Jordan Larson (OH, 6-2, Hooper, Neb., Univ. of Nebraska)
11 Annie Drews (OPP, 6-4, Elkhart, Ind., Purdue Univ.)
12 Jordan Thompson (OPP, 6-4, Edina, Minn., Univ. of Cincinnati)
14 Michelle Bartsch-Hackley (OH, 6-3, Champaign, Ill., Univ. of Illinois)
15 Kim Hill (OH, 6-4, Portland, Ore., Pepperdine, Univ.)
16 Foluke Akinradewo Gunderson (M, 6-3, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Stanford Univ.)
22 Haleigh Washington (M, 6-3, Colorado Springs, Colo., Penn State Univ.)
23 Kelsey Robinson (OH, 6-2, Manhattan Beach, Calif., Univ. of Nebraska)
24 Chiaka Ogbogu (M, 6-2, Coppell, Texas, Univ. of Texas)
Alternates
3 Kathryn Plummer (OH, 6-6, Aliso Viejo, Calif., Stanford Univ.)
6 Tori Dixon (M, 6-3, Burnsville, Minn., Univ. of Minnesota)
7 Lauren Carlini (S, 6-2, Aurora, Ill., Univ. of Wisconsin)
8 Hannah Tapp (M, 6-3, Stewartville, Minn., Univ. of Minnesota)
13 Sarah Wilhite Parsons (OH, 6-2, Eden Prairie, Minn., Univ. of Minnesota)
17 Megan Courtney (L, 6-1, Dayton, Ohio, Penn State Univ.)
