Four Lions Earn All-PSUAC Volleyball Recognition
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania -- Four Penn State Brandywine student-athletes garnered all-Pennsylvania State University Athletic Conference accolades as juniors Miranda Biondi (Newtown Square, Pa./Marple Newtown) and Nicole Costa (Lansdowne, Pa./Upper Darby) were named to the first team, while classmate Kimberly Russo (West Chester, Pa./West Chester East) and freshman Nicole Poissant (Aston, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara) were selected to the second team the league office announced recently.
Now a three-time, first team performer, Biondi is the only player nationally to have accumulated over 100 aces with 103. As the team's main setter, she ranked fourth in the PSUAC with 513 assists, while compiling 110 digs, 28 kills and 16 blocks in 26 matches.
During her three-year career, Biondi has collected 251 aces, while dishing out 1,577 assists and is on pace to become the first Lion in program history to reach the 2,000-assist mark.
Costa was awarded first team laurels for the second-straight season after pacing the team and finishing fourth in the league with 205 kills. She also led Brandywine with 78 blocks (62 solo), the third-highest total in the conference, while adding 36 aces and 25 digs.
A veteran of 74 career matches, Costa owns 516 kills and 150 blocks during her first three seasons at Penn State Brandywine.
Russo earned her third all-conference award after being selected honorable mention last season and garnering second team accolades as a rookie. She has led the Lions in digs during each of the last three seasons, including a career-best 312 this year, ranking second in the PSUAC. Russo also tallied 52 aces and 10 kills as Brandywine's libero.
Russo has totaled 812 digs in 74 career matches and will likely reach 1,000 digs as a senior in 2015.
Poissant enjoyed a standout rookie season, leading all PSUAC freshmen in kills (185) and aces (73), while standing second in assists (304) and third in digs (175). Overall, she was the only PSUAC student-athlete to rank among the top six in the league in kills, aces and assists.
Brandywine posted 21 victories, the most in program history, and finished second at the PSUAC Championship for the second consecutive year under the direction of fifth-year Head Coach Melissa Algeo.
Penn State Fayette's Emily Konter earned the league's player of the year honor for the second-straight year, while Roaring Lions' Head Coach Nancy Wheeler was named coach of the year.
