As I stood in the center of Rec Hall's Main Gym after a fall practice, I shot Penn State men's volleyball assistant coach Dennis Hohenshelt two questions.
"How are the new guys?" I asked of the freshmen additions to the squad. "You think either of them will see much time this year?"
They'll be good, he said, pointing to two gangly looking kids who were collecting stray volleyballs. He then tilted his head to the side slightly and eased into the rest of his response. Not right away, he said, but give them time.
Sorry, D, you were wrong.
Matt Anderson and Max Holt, the two gangly looking freshmen from the fall, needed virtually no time to adjust to the collegiate game. They have stepped onto the court right out of high school and made an immediate impact for the Nittany Lions.
So, the freshman duo has already made some heads turn in the collegiate volleyball world, but where can it go from here?
I will do my best attempt at imitating Miss Cleo and predicting their futures. Instead of using tarot cards and crystal balls, I've sifted through piles of stat sheets and scanned my mental memory bank of past matches.
All roads lead me to one conclusion: Anderson, an outside hitter, and Holt, a middle hitter, will finish their careers as some of the greatest Penn State men's volleyball players ever. They will be up there with Nate Meerstein, Keith Kowal, Ricky Mattei, Matt Proper, Ivan Contreras and Ramon Hernandez as some of the greatest the program has ever seen.
After only 12 matches, in a season that should have at least 30 matches, Anderson is third on the team in total kills (107) and is hitting at a .255 clip. When current co-captain Proper -- no doubt one of Penn State's all-time top hitters -- was a freshman, he had 101 kills on the entire season. As a sophomore, Kowal, who is 13th all-time in kills on the Penn State list, had 339 kills. Anderson is on pace to be about 75 kills shy of 339 as a freshman.
Anderson's hitting is not what has impressed many, though -- the 6-foot-7 outside hitter passes remarkably well for a big man and is second on the team in digs (53). When his career is finished, he might own the record for most digs of any hitter in Lions history.
Not to be shown up by his freshman comrade, Holt, in the process, has actually shown up his mentor, senior co-captain Nate Meerstein, in some areas.
The 6-foot-9 Holt is currently seventh in the nation in total blocks (58) -- best for any freshman nationally and tops on the team. If the middle hitter keeps pace with his blocking, he'll already crack Penn State's top 20 for total blocks in a season. Holt will almost surely finish near the top of the list in career blocks.
Holt is also hitting .367 and is fourth on the team in kills (72). Assuming he continues to progress, you can take it to the bank that he'll finish up there with Kowal and Meerstein with the highest hitting percentages of any Lion.
Penn State men's volleyball coach Mark Pavlik couldn't really express the certain mojo these freshmen carry on the court, but he recognized that they are special.
"With their work ethics now and their learning curves, they're going to give us things that only they can give us," Pavlik said. "I'm not sure what that is, but it certainly looks like there's a big upside to both of them."
So Hohenshelt underestimated the two players he helped recruit. Perhaps he didn't see their underlying potential to succeed immediately, only the great things that they might accomplish in the future. Pavlik didn't see them jumping into the mix right away, either. But hindsight is 20-20.
"The future is now," Pavlik said.
