As Indiana volleyball took the floor Sunday at Rec Hall in University Park, Pennsylvania, it was looking to achieve something it had never done before — defeat Penn State in the Nittany Lions’ home gym.
In 63 total meetings since 1982, Indiana has defeated Penn State once. Under former head coach Sherry Dunbar-Kruzan, the Hoosiers took down the Nittany Lions in four sets during the 2010 season in Bloomington.
A lot has changed since that 2010 season, from the hiring of current head coach Steve Aird to the addition of the transfer portal to collegiate athletics. But through the series, Penn State’s dominance over Indiana has been a constant.
That was until Sunday.
The Hoosiers have been swept by the Nittany Lions 17 times since 2010, but Indiana flipped the script Sunday afternoon. It marked the Hoosiers’ first win in Pennsylvania and second all-time over the Nittany Lions.
And not only did the Cream and Crimson defeat Penn State, but it largely dominated the contest. The Hoosiers found early leads in the first two sets that were insurmountable for the Nittany Lions. Penn State took its first lead of the match in the third set, but Indiana continued to overpower its opponent for a three-set victory.
Aird, who is in his eighth season at the helm of the Hoosiers, struggled to put into words what the win meant to him and his program on the Big Ten Network broadcast after the match, in part because of his history with Penn State.
From 1997-2001, Aird was a member of the Penn State men’s volleyball program. In his four-year playing career with the Nittany Lions, Aird and his teammates made three NCAA Tournament Final Four appearances.
However, Aird’s time with Penn State didn’t stop at being a player. After assistant coaching tenures at Auburn University and the University of Cincinnati, Aird became an assistant coach with the Nittany Lions for the 2007 season and won a national championship.
Aird stepped away from collegiate coaching for a brief period before returning to Penn State as an assistant coach once again from 2012-13. In 2012, the Nittany Lions made a Final Four appearance. In 2013, Aird and Penn State won another national championship.
Maryland hired Aird as its head coach ahead of the 2014 season. After four seasons with the Terrapins, Aird replaced Dunbar-Kruzan after an unsuccessful 2017 season in which the Hoosiers went 1-19 in conference play.
Under Aird, the Hoosiers haven’t been a dominant force in collegiate volleyball, let alone the Big Ten. Indiana’s lone conference record over .500 in Aird’s tenure was in 2023 when it went 11-9 to finish tied for sixth in the conference.
Now, in Aird’s eighth year at Indiana, his squad is becoming a powerful team in collegiate volleyball and continues to break program records.
Aside from the program’s first win at Penn State, the victory over the Nittany Lions was the Hoosiers’ eighth road win of the season, which marks the program’s record. After defeating then-No. 17 USC and then-No. 24 UCLA, Indiana reached its highest ranking in program history at No. 20. It already surpassed its 2024 season win total by three matches with eight contests remaining this season. The Hoosiers started Big Ten play with five straight wins — the best conference start in program history.
So, when Indiana defeated Penn State, it celebrated its head coach. After Aird shook hands with the Penn State staff, senior opposite hitter Avry Tatum — who is in her third season under Aird — ran up to Aird and congratulated him. Afterward on the broadcast, Tatum said her and her teammates wanted to win the match for Aird.
While the players were elated with the win — storming the court and cheering with one another — it was a bittersweet moment for Aird.
“It’s maybe not joyful, you know, it’s a program that made me,” Aird said on the broadcast, his voice breaking from holding back tears. “It’s hard right now. I’m emotional.”
Follow reporters Savannah Slone (@savrivers06 and srslone@iu.edu) and Kasey Watkins (@KaseyWatki8773 and kaslwatk@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana volleyball season.
