During pre-game drills last Friday night, she took a few swings. During the first game, she watched from the sideline with a warm-up jacket over her uniform.

But at the start of the second game, the jacket was off, and with the Penn State women's volleyball team down 18-12 to Minnesota, Cassy Salyer returned to the floor for the first time in one month.

The senior middle hitter/opposite had not played since Sept. 8 against Texas after she broke her right hand in practice four days later.

Salyer, a co-captain, later had surgery to insert two screws to stabilize the hand.

"It feels good to be back, definitely, being in uniform this past weekend," Salyer said after practice Monday. "Hopefully, I'll start contributing as much as I can."

The 2003 Big Ten Freshman of the Year saw limited action in No. 2 Penn State's victories against No. 23 Minnesota and No. 14 Wisconsin this past weekend.

She had just four attack attempts during the two matches, with three errors, but the 6-foot-5 Salyer was happy to be on the floor in any capacity after sitting out a good part of her senior season.

"Every year goes faster and I feel like this year is just flying by," Salyer said. "It was hard to spend a few weeks on the sidelines and watch the season pass, with you not able to do anything."

Salyer said she was able to participate in practices at her own pace after undergoing surgery. Head coach Russ Rose was reluctant to push her back too quickly though, and said Salyer was not completely cleared to go until the middle of last week.

"Cassy's making some progress. I don't think her timing is especially good right now, but she wants to play," Rose said after the Minnesota match.

"It's her senior year, and I'm sure she's frustrated that she's not ready to play but there will be a time where she's ready to play. It's based on what our needs are. There's times that she does some things for us that are very valuable."

Salyer entered the match Friday night after a timeout, going nearly unnoticed except by a few astute fans that were heard calling her name. Later she came in as a substitute and was given a louder acknowledgement.

"She needs to get in there and just get a little time," Rose said. "I tried to put her in two or three times just to get her in the flow of the game, let her go across the front row once and just see if she can just kind of get a little more comfort."

While Salyer returned from her hand injury, freshman middle hitter/opposite Blair Brown appeared on the sidelines over the weekend with a wrap around her left wrist and thumb.

Brown, a two-time Virginia Player of the Year (2004 and 2005) has not played in a match this season. Rose has previously said he was looking to redshirt the freshman this season, even before this undisclosed injury.

Brown played with fellow freshmen Megan Hodge and Alisha Glass on the United States Youth National Team that won the gold medal at the 2004 NORCECA (North, Central American and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation) Championships in Puerto Rico.