UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Two Penn State women’s volleyball players were honored by the AVCA on Wednesday as Kennedy Martin was named a first-team All-American and Gillian Grimes was tabbed as an honorable mention.
Martin is now a three-time AVCA All-American, adding this year’s honor to the two she earned while at Florida. She made the second team as a freshman and first team as a sophomore while with the Gators.
In her first season at Penn State, Martin put together the program’s best statistical performance of the 25-point rally scoring era (2008-present). The junior right side hitter set program records for the current era in single-season points (728), points/set (6.22), kills (634), and kills/set (5.42). She also owns the program’s records for both points and kills in three-set, four-set, and five-set matches in the current era.
Martin recorded double-digit kills in all but one match this season, with the lone outlier coming in a match in which she only played two sets. Seventeen times this season she eclipsed 20 kills in a match, including a season-high 34 in a four-set match against UCLA. Martin finished the season ranked first in the Big Ten and second nationally in kills, kills/set, points, and points/set.
Penn State has had a first-team All-American in back-to-back seasons as Martin follows Jess Mruzik with the honor. Prior to Mruzik, the Nittany Lions’ most recent first-team All-American was Kaitlyn Hord in 2019.
Grimes closes her time at Penn State with her first-career All-America honor, adding to the first-team All-Big Ten accolade she earned this season. She had double-digit digs in 26 matches while also establishing herself as one of the nation’s top passers. The team captain leaves Penn State as a two-time All-Big Ten and one-time honorable-mention All-America honoree. Grimes is the first Penn State libero to earn any type of All-America recognition since Kendall White, who was a first-team selection in 2018 and a second-team honoree in 2017 and 2019.