Russ Rose knew full well that he was about to court one of the nation’s most-prized high school volleyball recruits. He understood she had a slew of suitors, and she’d be listening to pitches from a handful of the country’s elite college programs, all on this very same day.

But while it was cold in Pennsylvania, it was a nice spring day in North Carolina.

“Instead of wearing my nice clothes,” said Rose, the renowned women’s volleyball coach at Penn State, “I wore shorts and a polo because, boy, I enjoyed sitting out in the sun.”
And when it was his turn to woo senior-to-be Megan Hodge—whose father, Michael, had arranged for his daughter’s top choices to gather on one afternoon at her school, Riverside High in Durham, N.C—Rose wasn’t exactly flattering. “He was like, ‘Come here if you want to come here,’” Hodge says. “‘If you don't want to come here, then don’t come here.’”

However unorthodox, his approach worked. Later that year, Hodge signed on to be a Nittany Lion. “That was refreshing to have him not trying to milk me with, ‘Ooh, it’s so wonderful and you’re so wonderful.’ That was a pleasant surprise,” Hodge says. Penn State landed four top-notch recruits in 2006, but Hodge was the jewel. She was named the 2005-06 National Volleyball Player of the Year by a number of organizations, including Volleyball magazine and Gatorade.

Four years later, the 6-foot-3 outside hitter is a front-runner to be the NCAA Player of the Year. That’s about the only honor not already on her resume. During her first three seasons at Penn State, Hodge was named a first-team All-American three times, the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player twice, and the NCAA Freshman of the Year. However, those awards mean little to Hodge, who says her senior season sights are set squarely on finishing the year the same way the past two ended—with a win. Penn State became the sixth women’s volleyball team in NCAA Division 1 history to win back-to-back titles, but now is looking to be the first to three-peat.

More daunting might be the task of just topping last season, in which the Nittany Lions ran off a 38-0 record. It was the fourth D-1 women’s perfect season, but none of the previous three posted more than 36 victories during their runs. Last year’s Penn State squad lost just two sets all season, and both came in an instant-classic national semifinal match with Nebraska.

But stars Nicole Fawcett and Christa Harmotto have moved on, so Rose says Hodge will need to take on more leadership this season. “With the graduation of those guys to the national team, it certainly opens up a lot of responsibility to the returning players—Megan certainly being one of those key players,” Rose says.

Hodge could be the second Penn State POY in as many years, as Fawcett garnered the award last season. But Hodge is more concerned with how her team fares. “I’ve never really looked at that as something to validate my volleyball status at all…I mean I’ll take it if I get it, but it’s not high up on my list right now,” she says.

The conservative Rose won’t label Hodge a front-runner for any individual honors because he says he doesn’t know enough about the other great players around the country. But he’s confident he can elicit the best out of his best player. He didn’t coddle Hodge coming out of high school, and he’s not about to pamper on her way out of college.

What’ Next

Megan Hodge is in good hands at Penn State with coach Russ Rose, who has amassed 963 wins, three national titles, and a Hall of Fame induction during 30 seasons in Happy Valley. But he won’t coach Hodge forever.

That task, at least while she’s in the United States, will likely be handed over to Hugh McCutcheon, head coach of the U.S. women’s national team. McCutcheon got his first extended look at the senior outside hitter in early June, when she and three other college players trained with the national team in Anaheim, Calif.

“Obviously a talented athlete, but a person who wants to learn a lot about volleyball and wants to get better. I thought she did a wonderful job,” McCutcheon said of Hodge.

USA Volleyball uses the summer—especially the one following an Olympics—to give prospective players a long look and get them acclimated with the national team’s system. McCutcheon, who’s in his first year with the U.S. women after leading the U.S. men to a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics, also invited Hodge’s setter from Penn State, Alisha Glass as well as Tamari Miyashiro, the libero from Washington; and Ellen Herman, an outside hitter from Ohio University.

He anticipates seeing a lot more of Hodge.

“I think her time with us certainly cemented—for both her and for us—the very-real possibility she has with this program, in terms of not only being part of USA but having a good professional career,” McCutcheon said.

Rose says he’s been contacted by “a number of professional teams about Megan,” but where she’ll land is up in the air. If she has her way, she’ll play on a club team in either Italy or Brazil. Regardless, when her time at Penn State is done, Hodge says she’ll be excited to move to a new place, likely out of the country, and see different things.

Until then, she’s happy in Happy Valley, where Rose looks forward to using what Hodge learned over the summer. Meanwhile, McCutcheon and prospective club teams will keep tabs from afar.