Jammers Volleyball Club

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - After winning its seventh straight and 13th overall Big Ten title, the top-ranked Penn State women's volleyball team secured three individual awards from the league, conference officials announced Monday. Head coach Russ Rose was named Coach of the Year by his peers and the media, senior outside hitter Megan Hodge (Durham, N.C.) was selected Player of the Year for the second time in her career and freshman outside hitter Darcy Dorton (Muncie, Ind.) earned Freshman of the Year.

Hodge joined senior setter Alisha Glass (Leland, Mich.), junior opposite Blair Brown (Purcellville, Va.) and junior middle hitter Arielle Wilson (Broadview, Ill.) as First Team All-Big Ten honorees. Hodge, Brown and Glass were unanimous selections. Dorton was also a unanimous selection to the Big Ten All-Freshman team.

Hodge is the 11th overall and fifth straight Nittany Lion to earn Player of the Year honors and is only the fifth player in league history to win the award more than once. In 2006, Hodge became the first Big Ten player to be named Freshman of the Year and Player of the Year in the same season. Hodge is also only the fifth Penn State player to pick up four First Team selections. Hodge, who was this week's Co-Big Ten Player of the Week, has a team-best 472 kills in 2009 and recently surpassed the 2,000 career kills milestone. She heads into the postseason with 2,054, which ranks second on PSU's all-time career kills list. She leads the squad and the Big Ten averaging 4.77 kills per set, good enough for eighth in the nation. The senior also ranks third in the league with a .399 hitting percentage and her 5.25 points per set is first in the Big Ten.