Nittany news and notes: Penn State fan infiltrated USC pregame, women’s volleyball’s superstar freshman, and more

Penn State fans traveled well to the West Coast for the Nittany Lions' first Big Ten road game of the year at the LA Coliseum. However, one die-hard Penn State fan took the blue-and-white invasion to another level. 

For all USC home games, the Trojans allow fans to pay to run out of the tunnel onto the field with the team, and the deal doesn’t really come with any fine print, Jordan Mott, a 2013 Penn State grad and California-based realtor, checked. Mott and his wife Claire paid the $1,800 to join USC head coach Lincoln Riley’s procession ahead of Penn State’s 33-30 overtime win, and they did it decked out in full Nittany Lion apparel. 

Well, after Mott’s stunt on Saturday, USC changed its policy to make sure no copycats arise throughout the rest of the Big Ten slate. Everyone knows Penn State has one of the best fanbases in college football, but pulling this off cemented it.

Penn State women’s volleyball’s superstar freshman

It typically takes a bit of time for freshmen to start impacting their team at the Division I level, especially when their team is ranked No. 3 in the country like Penn State women’s volleyball. Unless, of course, your name is Izzy Starck. 

The freshman setter from Viera, Florida was the No. 1 ranked recruit in the country and has hit the ground running with the Nittany Lions. This week she was named the Big Ten Women’s Volleyball Freshman of the Week for the fourth time. Starck recorded 32 assists, seven digs, and two kills in a sweep of Michigan State in East Lansing and then recorded her sixth double-double of the year with a 53-assist, 12-dig performance in a four-set win over Indiana in Bloomington. 

Penn State is now 16-1 on the year with the lone loss to No. 1 ranked Pitt. With a 6-0 record in conference play, the Nittany Lions are tied atop the Big Ten standings with No. 2 ranked Nebraska. 

As her team makes a push for a national championship, Starck has already reached rarefied air, becoming the first Penn State freshman to win Big Ten Freshman of the Week four times since Deja McClendon in 2010. McClendon finished her freshman season as the AVCA Division I National Freshman of the Year, an AVCA Second Team All-American, and the NCAA Championship Most Outstanding Player as Penn State won its fourth consecutive national title. 

More: Mackenzie Gress locked in at the right time

Penn State women’s soccer is 11-3-2 on the season, is in sixth place in the Big Ten with just three matches left to play, and has a red-hot goalkeeper at just the right time. Redshirt sophomore Mackenzie Gress was named the Big Ten Goalkeeper of the Week on Tuesday after recording the first shutout of her career in a 5-0 win over Maryland at College Park on Thursday. It was just her third start of the season. 

Gress then made her fourth start on Sunday and recorded a career-high six saves in a 3-2 win over Minnesota at home. Gress missed most of the collegiate season tending to her national team duties on the United States U-20 Women’s Youth National Team at the Fifa U-20 Women’s World Cup in Colombia. However, in her four starts for Penn State, she is 3-0-1 with just three goals allowed. 

Before the postseason begins, Gress will be doing even more travel, heading to the West Coast with the Nittany Lions this week to face No. 10 UCLA and No. 9 USC before finishing the regular season against Ohio State on October 27.