After the Penn State women's volleyball team learned that Cassy Salyer broke her right hand two weeks ago and would be out indefinitely, head coach Russ Rose did not have to look too far to find a player who could substitute for the senior co-captain.

Among the Nittany Lions' talented bench players was Kate Price. As a freshman in 2004, Price started at outside hitter, led the team in kills per game and was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year.

But since then, Rose brought in two highly-touted outside hitters named Nicole Fawcett and Megan Hodge. Those moves forced Price to take a backseat to Fawcett at that position last season, and in this, her junior season, be asked to accept a role as a bench player.

"That's part of being in a competitive program," Rose said. "Change is always coming. You wouldn't recruit somebody to your program and say, 'Listen, I'm not going to recruit any people that will be any good while you're here.' "

Rose did want to keep Price on the floor in some capacity because of her ball control ability and "volleyball I.Q." so he experimented with her at libero beginning last spring, and continued to early into this season.

The Lions, currently ranked No. 2 in the country, won several matches that Price started, but in the end Rose was not entirely satisfied with her performance.

He settled on sophomore Roberta Holehouse. Her style of play reminded Rose of the type of game played by departed libero Kaleena Walters, and Rose felt the more explosive and mobile Holehouse would fit better with the Lions offensive weapons.

Price once again saw her role on the team go in another direction.

"Coach told me that I would be off the bench," Price said before practice this week. "And that if anything happened because, 'The freshmen will be freshmen,' he always says, then I would be the first sub in."

The freshmen, however, exceeded expectations. Hodge was recently voted Big Ten Player of the Week and freshman setter Alisha Glass was named National Player of the Week three weeks ago. And so, significant playing time for Price was hard to come by.

Instead it was an injury to Salyer that brought Price off the bench. Other conference teams would have trouble replacing an experienced player like Salyer, who like Price, was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year after her first season at Penn State.

No other coach can say he or she had Rose's opportunity to replace one former conference freshman of the year (Salyer, 2003) with another (Price, 2004).

"That's a nice problem to have," Rose said before rephrasing. "It's not a problem, it's a blessing. It's great."

Price has filled in ably and displayed the defensive skills from the back row that Rose knew she possessed. During a win at Iowa this past weekend, Rose said Price was the best player on the court for the Lions after she finished with seven digs, four blocks and three service aces.

Price said she is happy to help the team any way she can, even if it's not at the position where she earned freshman of the year honors.

"If Nicole is putting the ball down or Megan is putting the ball down, then it doesn't matter," Price said. "I want the same outcome everyone else does. If we're winning by doing it, then more power to them."

Teammates, say Price's actions have't differed from her words.

"Kate's not like that," Fawcett said. "She's always a hard worker and gives everything she has. She never has jealously towards one person because we want to win as a team. We don't care what accolades some people may get."