Holland confident in her game and Penn State’s success

A key piece for Penn State in her sophomore and junior years, middle blocker Allie Holland will play an even larger role for the Nittany Lions in the 2023 Big Ten volleyball season.

The 21-year-old, 1.90m-tall middle is one of the seven seniors to be a part of Penn State’s roster in 2023 and she’s coming from a strong 2022 campaign, in which she was the team’s second-best scorer with 382 points (259 kills, 158 blocks and 59 aces) and made it to the All-Big Ten first team.

• Watch the Big Ten Volleyball matches live on VBTV.

The excellent season gave Holland the confidence she needed to be an even more central piece in the team’s playing system and she has already started to display an improved game, having tallied a career-high ten blocks in a non-conference match against Florida last weekend.

“I feel more confident now,” she reflected. “Last season I was still working through some things and maybe if I made an error, I would feel pretty negative. Now I feel more confident, I know it’s a game of mistakes and I feel more confident just in my own skin, let alone being on the court.”

When things don’t go well, however, the middle blocker has the privilege of being able to connect with one of her idols, former Penn State player and USA national team Olympic champion middle blocker Haleigh Washington, who became a mentor of sorts to her since the two first met, two years ago.

“She’s also a Penn Stater and a fellow middle,” Holland explained. “After they won the gold medal at the Olympics, we were lucky enough to get her and (setter) Micha Hancock back in the gym. We got to meet them, to put the gold medal on, it was pretty unreal. Now, if I have an issue, I’m messaging her. She’s an icon.”

The same confidence she has grown to have in her game, Holland has about her team. Penn State were fifth in the Big Ten last season before falling to conference rivals Wisconsin in the playoffs, but the middle blocker feels like the Nittany Lions are ready to come back stronger in 2023.

Despite the graduation of leading scorer Kashauna Williams, they were able to add two important pieces via transfer in setter Mac Podraza and outside hitter Jess Mruzik.

“I’m absolutely thrilled with my fourth year at Penn State,” Holland commented. “I think we have a great team. We got four freshmen coming in and some transfers who have a lot of experience from other schools.”

Penn State’s season started with losses to Florida and Georgia Tech this past weekend at the Road 2 Tampa Bay Invitational. This coming weekend, the Nittany Lions will be back home at the Penn State Invitational facing Western Kentucky, Colgate and James Madison over the weekend.

The match against Western Kentucky, set to start at 19:00 local time (23:00 UTC), on Friday, will be streamed live on VBTV.

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