UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State Women’s Volleyball picked up two more awards from the Big Ten on Monday as Jess Mruzik was named the conference’s Player of the Week and Izzy Starck was tabbed as the Setter of the Week. The pair earned the honors after leading the third-ranked Nittany Lions to wins over Ohio State and No. 14 Minnesota.
Mruzik earned the top player award for the third time in four weeks after averaging 5.88 kills and 3.50 digs per set while recording a pair of double-doubles. She matched a season high with 29 kills and added 12 digs and four blocks in a five-set win at Ohio State on Friday. She then hit .325 with 18 kills, 16 digs, and one block in a sweep over the Gophers on Sunday at Rec Hall.
During Penn State's 10-match winning streak, Mruzik is hitting .292 with 5.29 kills and 2.91 digs per set. She currently leads the league by a large margin with 5.41 kills/set in conference play, doing so while hitting .285. She is the first Penn State player to earn three Big Ten Player of the Week awards in a season since Haleigh Washington in 2017.
Starck has now won an award from the Big Ten in six of the first eight weeks of the season. She is a two-time Setter of the Week and four-time Freshman of the Week. Starck averaged 12.00 assists and 2.88 digs per set over Penn State’s two wins last week. She recorded her seventh double-double of the season with 50 assists and 17 digs in a five-set road win over the Buckeyes. She followed that with 46 assists while leading the Nittany Lions to .305 hitting and added six digs in a sweep over the nationally-ranked Gophers.
Penn State is 18-1 overall and is tied with Nebraska atop the Big Ten standings at 8-0. The Nittany Lions take a 10-match winning streak into their trip to the west coast, which includes matches at UCLA on Thursday and at USC on Saturday.