At last Friday's Penn State women's volleyball match, Rec Hall's public address announcer rattled off the starting lineups for the Nittany Lions, and when he bellowed out "a six foot, sophomore setter," nothing seemed out of the norm.

But when he followed "from Bolingbrook, Ill., No. 12 Jessica Yanz," fans in attendance may have been a little shocked.

Fellow sophomore setter Alisha Glass had received the bulk of playing time at the position since she began her career at Penn State.

However, when the No. 3 Lions took on No. 1 Nebraska two weekends ago, Yanz played most of the last two games in place of Glass in the Lions' blowout loss.

After a week of practice leading up to the Penn State Classic last weekend, Penn State head coach Russ Rose decided to go in a different direction and started Yanz in three matches.

After Friday's match against No. 24 St. John's, Rose was satisfied with how Yanz performed as the team's setter.

"She made some good choices with who she should be setting at certain times," Rose said. "A couple times she was too predictable. But it's a tough match in front of a big crowd against a ranked opponent. She did a nice job."

Yanz enjoyed her chance to start in front of a large home crowd. She also credited her play to her teammates around her.

"I just wanted to go out and have fun and distribute the ball well," Yanz said. "The girls helped me out a lot. The passes were all there. It seemed like every ball going up was getting a kill or having them scramble on the other side."

But will Yanz start again this weekend?

It is clear that neither Yanz nor Glass has a stranglehold on the position of setter so far this season. That may be why both of them could be seen getting some extra repetitions together 20 minutes before Monday's practice.

Getting into the gym before the rest of the team may become standard practice for them. Both agreed that they are going to try and make the routine a daily occurrence.

If they get to set an extra 100 balls before practice, it could lead to some consistency. And the team badly needs steady play from its setters with the powerful hitters that surrounded them.

"We're trying to get in the habit of doing it all the time because as setters, you're only as good as the amount of reps you get," Glass said. "If your tempo isn't there and your consistency isn't there, that's not something that you want to work on in practice because it takes away from what the team is doing."

Rose believes who will get the majority of playing time on the weekends depends on who puts in the best work during the week.

While practice may dictate who gets the playing time, the decision is not solely made by the dictator.

"I make the decision, but I talk with the other coaches and ask what their assessment of it is," Rose said. "I also talk to the hitters about who they feel they are connecting with and try to make a decision that is going to be the best for the team."

At some point this season Rose hopes one of his setters will eventually emerge above the other. If no one steps up soon, along with other position battles on the team, it could set back the Lions until someone does.

"It's to the point now were we need to come up with a lineup and a roster that gives us an opportunity to be as competitive as we can be," Rose said.

With seven starters returning from last year, it seemed that the lineup might have been set coming into the season. One of those returnees was Glass, who started in all 35 matches.

Coming out of high school, Glass was an extremely talented athlete -- she won the Michigan Gatorade Player of the Year award in 2006. When she came to Penn State, she successfully learned to be a setter as she was a part of the Big Ten All-Freshmen team last season.

So when Glass was asked to change her role and come off the bench last weekend, it was a slight adjustment.

It was a role that she had never experienced and would prefer not to for the entire season.

"It's just a different role that you have to look at how you contribute to the team differently," she said. "I guess if you ask me if I wanted this to be my role for the rest of the season I would say no. But if it is and this is what our team needs to be better, than I try to come off the bench and make every play that I make in the game count."

Coming off the bench is a responsibility that Yanz knows all too well.

Despite being the 2006 Illinois Gatorade Player of the Year and a trained setter in high school, Yanz saw limited action in her freshman campaign.

She has first-hand experience at how tough it can be to come into matches off the bench.

"It was frustrating, but at the same time I wanted what was best for the team," Yanz said. "If that required me to show my support from the sidelines, then that's what I needed to do."

Even before Yanz started last week, the competition between the two was always there. The competition is something that they both have accepted and hope to continue to improve from it.

"It is definitely a competitive situation between her and I, but it makes us both better," Yanz said.