The first week of college for freshmen can be a daunting reality. There are strange new people, in a big new place, with lots of new responsibilities.

Then imagine this wonderful life-changing experience transformed into tens of thousands of Nebraskans or Hawaiians wishing for those freshmen and everyone around them to fail. With that in mind, try to visualize playing a high-paced sport such as volleyball at the collegiate level for the first time ever, against teams that are all ranked in the top four of the preseason polls.

But for freshmen Nicole Fawcett and Christa Harmotto of the Penn State women's volleyball team, they couldn't be bashful about that first foray with an opposing group of players that, for the most part, had high school All-American written on their college applications.

"It was great to play the best teams first," Harmotto said. "You can get accustomed to the big crowds that are rooting against you."

Each player had no reason to be timid, because each was Gatorade Player of the Year for her respective state. Harmotto, from Hopewell Township, and Fawcett, from Zanesfield, Ohio, were each inserted into the starting lineup straight out of the prom based on their talent. And after a long road trip, they both fared pretty well in their first course of Collegiate Volleyball 101.

Fawcett and Harmotto were thrust into the spotlight at the AVCA/NACWAA College Volleyball Showcase and the Hawaiian Airlines Classic. And not only did they each start for the Nittany Lions in all five matches during the road trip, each stuck out.

Like some of the really sociable first-year students, mostly everyone in the building knew their name by the end of each day. Harmotto set herself atop the headlines by setting a Penn State record for blocks in a four-game match with 13 against No. 7 Southern California on Aug. 31. Fawcett, on the other hand, was racking up kills and leads the Lions team so far this season with 86.

Yet this is not the first time the two have put up stats on the same team. Fawcett and Harmotto had already known each other from the USA Junior National Team and had already won the 2004 NORCECA gold medal in Winnipeg, Canada. Knowing each other took away the awkward bonding phase that most freshmen have to go through with a new roommate.

"We had a chance to room with each other before," Fawcett said. "It was good to know coming in that you had someone you knew and could depend on."

But just like all freshmen lost around campus on the first day of classes, Harmotto and Fawcett had their struggles finding their way during matches, and each admits they could use a little bit more focus.

For this reason, Penn State coach Russ Rose was also cautious about giving straight A's to his new pupils for their performances. He believes that both can cut down on errors, a category in which they rank No. 1 and 2 on the team. Fortunately, each is academically enabled, as in high school Fawcett was a member of the National Honor Society, and Harmotto was a four-year scholar-athlete.

"That could probably be someone's research project, see if smarter athletes adjust faster to the college level," Rose said. "I don't know if that's true, but you would hope so."

While past academic performance might have no relevance to performing on a volleyball court, it will come in handy with some of the work that piled up during their long vacation.

"It was stressful coming back and reading all my e-mails from my professors," Fawcett said.