When the Penn State women's volleyball team had one of the best setters in the country two years ago, they swept Stanford for the national championship.

That was Bonnie Bremner, who finished with 5,911 assists on her career, the second most in Penn State history. She also walked away with two Big Ten Player of the Year awards and four All-American standings.

The 2001 team won't need similar dominance from the setter to be effective, but they will need to find a consistent quarterback for their offense.

Entering the season, sophomore Jess Hayden had the spot nailed down.

However, she struggled early in training camp and has failed to be the physical presence head coach Russ Rose hoped she would be.

"We're hoping Jess can bring her game back up to where it needs to be," he said.

"But at the same time, we're comfortable in what Shannon (Bortner) can do. I've just never liked a situation where you split time between two setters. But this year it's really not up for consideration. There's not much of a depth chart problem with them."

The two split time last season, with Hayden starting 20 of the 36 matches.

Bortner, a junior, brings a strong sense for the game to the floor. She anticipates well and has a knack for setting up good offensive attempts.

"Shannon is probably going to get the start for us," Rose said. "What she'll bring to the team in some consistency. She's got great awareness on the court."

Hayden is more of a natural setter and is the best server on the team. As a sophomore last year she lead the team in both service aces (0.46 per game) and assists (11.57 per game). She was named to the All-Big Ten Freshman team.

"Setters have a significant role in leading the team," she said. "We're kind of in control of the game plan. There are some technical aspects of the game that we have to take care of."

This year, the Lions are just hoping that two setters are better than one.

"Right now, it might be a matter of putting them out there and seeing what happens," said Rose. "I'd like to see what both of them are capable of in a game situation. In the long run, we'd like one of them to step up to the front, but it's not such a bad thing to have two capable setters."