About a dozen picture and video files are stored in a computer that sits in a sparsely decorated West Halls dorm room. Open one and you're transported to a little slice of her world.

She's in photos with her sisters, all wearing bikinis, boots and making faces for the camera as they take a break from yard work. There are movies of her relatives setting off fireworks or messing around on a trampoline or playing with the family dog. She watches the videos and laughs.

This is her life. These are the people who matter.

On the volleyball court, she is different. She's doesn't appear the same giggly, deeply faithful, family-oriented woman who sits in this room. She transforms into the other version of Roberta Holehouse: An energetic, focused libero for the Penn State women's volleyball team.

That's all that the Rec Hall crowds see. But what they don't see are the roads she traversed to get to State College. They don't know what it was like to be homeschooled. They don't know what it was like to come to college and have your world flipped.

But after a hellish first year at Penn State, her unique journey has molded her in the person who now takes to the court.

When I said, 'My foot is slipping,' your love, O Lord, supported me.

-- Psalms 94:18

Ask her or her teammates, Holehouse 2006 is not the same edition that was here in 2005. The new model is a bit more outgoing, even a hint more confident.

"I came in the first year not knowing what to expect, so I was tossed around a lot," she says.

Holehouse was buried on the depth chart, at times emotionally confused, and her 5-foot-8 frame was constantly battered. It was so difficult that she didn't care to stay around Penn State during the summer months to work out, as many athletes do. She "needed to go home," she says -- needed a break from the grind of a "very tough" first year.

"She quietly lived it," says her mother, Joanne. "This summer, there was some serious crying and 'I don't know what I should do' and 'I don't know if I should go through this again.' "

And this coming from a girl who isn't given to crying, her parents say. But last year she was stuck behind now-graduated libero Kaleena Walters and was still trying to find her way in the locker room, still trying to find her niche at school.

"That was probably the hardest part, I think," Holehouse says. "There's so many different girls from so many different backgrounds. And I felt like at first I had to tiptoe around them a lot and that I couldn't be myself as much as I wanted to be."

All the change, her parents say, stems from a meeting with Penn State head coach Russ Rose. She went to talk to him with intentions of telling him she had just been through the worst year of her life, says her father, Joe, and that she wasn't sure if she could go through it again.

Rose told her that he wanted her

back, that she could play an integral role on the team. She came away from the conversation with a new sense of belonging. And coupled with a summer's rest back in Maryland and her faith, the time away has made all the difference.

Holehouse is thriving now, in and out of Rec Hall. She earned the starting libero job and is leading the team in digs per game (3.42), up from a measly .53 per game last year.

"Roberta, following in Kaleena's footsteps, is much more explosive and can cover a large range," Rose says.

Just hearing the way she speaks about her first two years illustrates a stark contrast.

"I knew I had to change something because last year wasn't how I wanted the next three years to go," she says.

Compared to now: "I know the libero position is a position where you have to be a leader," she says, speaking on if she'd like to be a captain in the future. "So whether coach gives me that title or not, I know I have to be a leader on the court anyway."

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- His good, pleasing and perfect will.

-- Romans 12:2

A Bible lies on a shelf near that computer with captured memories, another defining piece of her life, another crutch that pushed her through to help get her where she is now.

Holehouse built onto a faith instilled by her parents as a non-denominational Christian, and accepted it for herself. As a regular reader of the Bible and churchgoer, her religiousness helps dictate who she is in everyday life.

"I guess you would say it's not a normal college life -- the stereotypical college life," she says. "It doesn't take any fun away from my life, though. I still have tons of fun with my friends.

That "normal college life" might entail raucous weekends of fraternity and house parties. But not for Roberta.

That mantra is not so easy to uphold, especially here at Penn State (the nation's No. 2 party school). Especially when you're trying to find a footing with a new group of girls, trying to make friends out of older teammates and trying to become established academically, like Holehouse was coming into last year.

She didn't know if she wanted to be a part of the whole party scene, if it "was going to be worth it." So, she simply set up some guidelines -- what she will and won't do. And that, she says, "helped to shape me in this college."

"I think it was a little lonely, a little bit," Joe Holehouse says, "because it was all volleyball and she wasn't able to cope too much with friends who would support her in her faith. Then [this year] she's been able to do that as well, so its kind of rounded things off a bit, I think."

That might've been difficult if Holehouse wasn't so strong-willed.

"I like being different," she says. "I've never been one to go with the flow. I will, but I think style and everything else, I like to be a little different than everyone else."

Sophomore middle hitter Christa Harmotto calls her a "down-to-earth girl." Rose says, "she's wired differently."

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -- this is your spiritual act of worship.

-- Romans 12:1

"I had a very, very strange childhood," she says.

Strange, of course, is relative. But to many students here, strange might aptly describe her childhood.

In seventh grade, Holehouse began homeschooling. Originally, her brother, Kyle Holehouse, was plucked from school to start homeschooling to spend more time with the family and keep on the correct path, given the often wayward nature of middle schoolers.

Roberta did the same, and though Kyle didn't like it, she enjoyed the freedom, the ability to spend time with family and continued through the ninth grade at home.

She moved so swiftly through the curriculum at home she eventually started taking classes at a community college in 10th grade and entered Penn State with about 40 credits under her belt.

"I had a pretty cool social life," she says. "I think just spending that much time with my parents and myself and having to incorporate everything I've learned with other people really helped me develop as a person. I was in so many different situations that people never get to experience and I think that really helped me develop who I am, and that I can be secure with myself, no matter who I'm around."

Working at home allowed her more time to ride horses -- she has two -- play tennis with her father, practice the piano and conduct a daily Bible study session.

And she traveled the world during her summers, sightseeing and ministering, with a Christian schooling organization. She's been to South Korea, Puerto Rico and Malaysia. Thailand was her favorite.

During a trip to Thailand, she and the youth group went to a small, impoverished school to spend some time with the kids. Her mother packed yo-yos and a Slinky or two in her suitcase for the trip. Holehouse handed them over and watched the children's excited reactions.

"Just that moment, I think, changed my life, knowing that I would want to see kids faces like that all the time, making that big of an impact on someone's life," she says. "I think that really just gave me a heart for people and a heart to find a job that I will impact people like that again."

(She's a Kinesiology major with a 3.72 grade point average and is considering a career in the medical field, perhaps as a physician's assistant.)

Homeschooling also gave her CHEN -- Christian Home Educators Network -- a volleyball team comprised of homeschoolers from the Baltimore area, which traveled the country. Twice the team won the National Homeschool Volleyball Tournament in Nebraska, her freshman and senior years.

Involvement with CHEN and maintained contacts with friends from her previous Christian private school built her social foundation. Still, family always seems to shine through as an anchoring mechanism in her life. In fact, her mother attends every home match and usually stops by to drop off comfort food.

Something that was particularly important for Holehouse given last season's struggles.

"I have a huge support group," Holehouse says. "My family is wonderful. My mom's sister lives two houses down from us -- they just moved in, and so it was really cool last summer to have all of my cousins up. My parents have been amazing, they've supported me through every single decision I've ever made."

Maybe that helps explain the collection of goofy pictures and videos on her computer.

But something about the girl in those pictures has changed. She's religious, family-centered, but now, with a renewed confidence and a heightened sense of self.