UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The defending National Champion Penn State women’s volleyball team unveiled its 2025 schedule on Wednesday. The Nittany Lions stacked the schedule in preparation for another postseason run as the slate features 16 matches against teams that played in last year’s NCAA Tournament, eight matches against opponents that won conference titles last season, and 23 matches against teams that finished in the top 100 of last year’s final RPI.
Penn State opens the season with back-to-back showcase events, starting with the AVCA First Serve. The Nittany Lions play Creighton on Saturday, Aug. 23, at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska. They then finish the event with a match against Kansas on Monday, Aug. 25, at Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The Bluejays advanced to the NCAA Regional Final last season, where they lost to the Nittany Lions in five sets at Rec Hall. The Jayhawks made the NCAA Second Round.
The next featured event for the Nittany Lions is the State Farm Women’s College Volleyball Showcase on Labor Day weekend at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh. They take on Arizona State on Sunday, Aug. 31, and then play TCU the following day. Both the Sun Devils and Horned Frogs advanced to the NCAA Second Round last season.
Penn State then plays its next nine matches at Rec Hall, starting with the home opener against defending SEC champion Kentucky on Friday, Sept. 5. The teams played in Lexington last year in a match that the Nittany Lions won via reverse sweep. The Wildcats went on to win three times in the NCAA Tournament before falling to Pitt in the Regional Final.
Following the home opener, the Nittany Lions continue the nine-match home stretch with non-conference contests against New Hampshire (Sept. 7), Bucknell (Sept. 9), Pitt (Sept. 17), Princeton (Sept. 19), and Central Michigan (Sept. 21). New Hampshire, Pitt, and Princeton all won either conference regular season or tournament titles last season. Pitt made it all the way to the NCAA National Semifinal before falling to Louisville. Central Michigan makes the trip to Happy Valley with a familiar face at the helm as Arielle Wilson is set for her first season as the team’s head coach. Wilson was a three-time All-American for the Nittany Lions while helping the team win four straight national titles from 2007-10.
Penn State plays its first three Big Ten matches at home, starting with USC (Sept. 26) and UCLA (Sept. 28). A big match looms on Oct. 3 as the Nittany Lions host longtime rival Nebraska. They beat the Huskers at Rec Hall to clinch a share of the Big Ten title last season and then posted a thrilling reverse-sweep victory over the Huskers in the National Semifinal on their way winning the program’s eighth national title.
Nebraska is one of three Big Ten teams Penn State will play twice in its 20-match conference schedule. The second matchup is set for Nov. 28 in Lincoln. The Nittany Lions also play Maryland and Ohio State twice and the other 14 teams once each.
Including the two matches against Nebraska, Penn State has nine contests against Big Ten teams that played in last year’s NCAA Tournament. That includes home matches against USC (Sept. 26) and Wisconsin (Oct. 10), and road matches against Washington (Oct. 17), Oregon (Oct. 18), Purdue (Nov. 7), Illinois (Nov. 9), and Minnesota (Nov. 14).
Penn State returns starting setter Izzy Starck, who was the AVCA National Freshman of the Year and a second-team All-American, and libero Gillian Grimes, who joined Starck on the All-Big Ten Team. Also back are Caroline Jurevicius, an outside hitter/right side, that made the Big Ten All-Freshman Team and shined in the NCAA Tournament, starting middle blocker Maggie Mendelson, and a pair of defensive specialists that were mainstays in the lineup in Ava Falduto and Jocelyn Nathan. Jordan Hopp, a middle blocker that stepped up big in the NCAA Tournament, is back for a graduate season.
In addition to the returning players, the Nittany Lions added a pair of big-time hitters in the transfer portal. Junior Kennedy Martin comes to Happy Valley after earning first-team All-America status while leading the nation in points/set at Florida last season. Sophomore Emmi Sellman joins the team after spending her first season at Ohio State. She was ranked as the No. 5 recruit in the country coming out of high school and shined with 27 kills in a match against Penn State during her freshman campaign.
Tickets for the 2025 season at Rec Hall will be available at a later date. Check GoPSUSports.com for updates.