Reppin’ In Rio: Penn State Men’s and Women’s Volleyball Alums Earn Bronze Medals

We know you all are suffering from Olympics withdrawal right about now, so how about one final update on how your fellow Penn Staters fared?

First, on the wrestling mat: Frank Molinaro lost a hard-fought match for the bronze medal in the 65kg weight class to finish fifth overall. If you haven’t already done so, check out Lando’s recap of how it all went down.

On the volleyball front: Both the U.S. men’s and women’s teams managed to shake off the disappointment of not making to the gold medal match by winning bronze medals. The American women took out The Netherlands 25-23, 25-27, 25-22, 25-19 thanks in part to the efforts of Christa Dietzen (Harmotto) and Alisha Glass. Meanwhile, the American men rallied from a two sets to none deficit, defeating the Russians 23-25, 21-25, 25-19, 25-19, 15-13. With Matt Anderson, Aaron Russell, and Max Holt all earning medals (in addition to Dietzen and Glass on the women’s team), this resulted in a combined five Penn Staters earning medals just from volleyball alone.

As a result of the successful finishes of the U.S. volleyball teams, the final medal tally for your fellow Penn Staters (one silver, seven bronzes) reads as follows:

Congratulations to all Penn Staters who competed down in Rio over the past few weeks. May the medal tally in the Tokyo games be even stronger.