Penn State women’s volleyball lands back-to-back No. 1 recruits and daughter of NBA legend on National Signing Day

Penn State women’s volleyball head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley has turned the Nittany Lions into a force on the recruiting trail. The No. 1 recruit in the country in 2024, Izzy Starck, has helped lead the Nittany Lions to their 23-2 start in her true freshman season, and now Schumacher-Cawley has done it again. 

On National Signing Day for the 2025 recruiting class, Penn State landed No. 1 recruit Marin Collins. The 6-foot-3 Hamburg, New York product has been a dominant outside hitter and impressed at Penn State’s 7 Star Camp alongside Starck. If she hit the ground running as well as Starck has, Collins could replace this year’s kills leader Jess Mruzik’s offensive production.

Mruzik, a graduate student and former Michigan transfer, is fourth in the Big Ten in total kills and second in kills per set (4.48) to Purdue's Eva Hudson. Penn State's second leader in kills is former Clemson transfer Camryn Hannah, who is also a graduate student in her final year of eligibility. So, Collins could be leaned on for big-time production from her first year on campus.

Collins headlined Schumacher-Cawley’s five-player 2025 class but wasn’t the only notable name. 

Penn State also signed 6-foot-4 outside hitter Alexis Ewing from Bethesda Maryland. The daughter of NBA legend Patrick Ewing and former Long Beach State women’s volleyball star Cheryl Weaver, Ewing played her high school volleyball at the prestigious Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland, a hotbed of elite athletes. 

The 2025 class was rounded out by outside hitter Ava Jurevicius, younger sister of current Nittany Lion outside hitter Caroline Jurevicius, middle blocker Gabrielle Nichols, and libero Lexi Gin. Nichols is the second-highest-rated player in Penn State's class.

With back-to-back No. 1 recruits, the future appears very bright for Penn State women’s volleyball and the present might be just as promising. Despite a three-set loss to No. 7 Wisconsin in Madison on Saturday the Nittany Lions are still in line to compete for a Big Ten title and only fell to No. 4 in the country.