Penn State volleyball secures top 30 commit in 2026 cycle

Penn State women’s volleyball has high expectations under 3rd-year head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley after receiving a No. 7 ranking in the AVCA preseason poll. The Nittany Lions are the third highest-ranked team within the new-look Big Ten and have National Title aspirations in 2024. That push to get back to the top got stronger on Tuesday as Penn State volleyball picked up a commitment from highly ranked 2026 prospect Kendall Northern on Tuesday.

Kendall Northern ranks No. 2 in the state of Ohio and 26^th overall for the class of 2026. She is a 6-1 middle blocker/right-side hitter out of Cincinnati, Ohio, and will be the fourth member of Penn State volleyball’s 2026 class. Northern chose the Nittany Lions over other top Big Ten programs such as Nebraska, Wisconsin, and UCLA.

She has been a regular participant in USA volleyball’s NTDP training sessions and already played with another 2025 Penn State middle blocker commit Gabbie Nichols. Northern led the Miami Valley conference with 402 kills as a sophomore last season and earned first-team all-conference.

Nittany Lions on the rise

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Katie Schumacher-Cawley appears to have Penn State volleyball returning to the level that legendary coach Russ Rose had them at in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Penn State already signed the No. 1 overall recruit in Izzy Starck for the 2024 class and is stacking up more commitments for 2025. With Kendall Northern’s commitment, the Nittany Lions now have all four of their 2026 commits ranked inside the top 40 overall. We may see Penn State return to the top of the sport sooner rather than later.

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