In theory, there might be a press release sitting in the drafts folder of the Penn State athletics website that will make this post a moot point sometime soon.
But just in case, while Penn State is at with all of the women’s volleyball game announcements, there’s one more I’d like to see.
It’s time for Penn State women’s volleyball to play a match at the Bryce Jordan Center.
Penn State women’s volleyball will play matches at Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs, and quasi-matches at AT&T Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys. It will also play a match at The Palestra, home of Philly college basketball, according to Matt Fortuna, the night before Penn State football plays Temple across town.
So what’s one more new location while Penn State’s at it?
Of one of the more visible changes that Pat Kraft has made on Penn State’s athletic department, games played at non-normal locations may be one of the more noticeable hallmarks.
Penn State wrestling (while it has wrestled there prior to his tenure) has upped the number of matches at the Jordan Center throughout the season. Penn State women’s basketball has effectively relocated to Rec Hall – a move that makes a lot of sense as the Lady Lions have struggled to rebuild their foundation.
And of course, Penn State’s hockey programs took to ice inside of Beaver Stadium in January.
There’s a reason, too. It makes Penn State some serious cash.
During the 2024-25 season, Penn State wrestled three matches at the BJC, taking on Wyoming, Iowa and Michigan on the east end of campus. The prior season, Penn State wrestled there just once.
Those three matches resulted in a 33 percent increase in Penn State wrestling ticket sales year over year according to the athletic department’s financial reports. That number also doesn’t include more cash in parking and concessions as well. It’s also why Penn State wrestled at the Jordan Center three times this most recent season once again.
But Penn State’s biggest fall women’s sport has not got in on the action of playing in other local locales.
It’s odd.
It feels like a missed opportunity, especially after the heightened focus on Penn State women’s volleyball following its return to the top with a 2024 national title.
While financially Penn State spends the second most on women’s volleyball among its women’s sports, fanatically it’s the women’s sport that gets the most attention. Because Penn State women’s basketball squandered its position on campus with performance that prompted Kraft to fired Carolyn Kieger at the end of this season, women’s volleyball has become the women’s sport on campus at a time when women’s sports have never been more popular. It repeatedly dwarfed Penn State women’s basketball’s attendance figures inside of Rec Hall. And while women’s ice hockey did have its moment in 2025-26, the consistency from Penn State women’s volleyball has turned it into one of the most recognizable brands in the country – and with even casual Penn State fans.
Mix in the overall rise of popularity of girls volleyball in the country and in the state, showcasing the sport at the biggest indoor venue on campus seems like an obvious win for women’s sports at Penn State.
The opponent choice feels obvious too. Penn State will host Nebraska this season, maybe the sport’s premier rivalry. It is the match that will have campus talking and will be circled when that press release comes out.
But playing that at the Jordan Center could make it even more of a spectacle.
Penn State has found a flair for the theatrics when it has hosted wrestling matches at the Jordan Center. They feel more akin to a fight night in the UFC as opposed to the gritty, down-to-earth feeling that Rec Hall matches have to offer. Matches at the Jordan Center feature light shows, fire and maybe a slightly different atmosphere than those at Rec Hall. The logistics also don’t require Penn State to dance around the men’s basketball schedule (which would still not get as many fans as Katie Schumacher-Cawley’s team) as they don’t begin play until two months into the women’s volleyball season.
There’s no reason that Penn State women’s volleyball, arguably the second most successful tenant of Rec Hall, shouldn’t get that treatment if it played a match at the other end of campus. Die-hard volleyball fans will show up, girls passionate about their sport would cheer for the rock stars of their sport and Penn State women’s volleyball would get its moment in the sun in front of its fans on campus, not at some football or baseball stadium halfway across the country.
The stands inside the Jordan Center would be packed. There would inevitably even be some sort of scoreboard issue. But there would be a buzz.
And all of that buzz could start with a simple press release, hopefully sitting as a draft in the GoPSUSports.com CMS, waiting to be published.
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