The Penn Stater Magazine

Vote for the Women’s Volleyball Team

January 15, 2010 at 4:48 pm Lori Shontz Leave a comment

One of the highlights of the Pittsburgh social scene is the annual Dapper Dan Dinner, which raises money for youth sports leagues through a dinner honoring Western Pennsylvania’s top sports figures. Among this year’s nominees for Sportswomen of the Year: the Penn State women’s volleyball team, which won its third consecutive NCAA championship in December.

The winner is chosen by a vote, so you can do your part by clicking here.

I’ve got a personal attachment to this. Dapper Dan is the charity arm of my hometown Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where I worked from 1994-2003, and while I always thought the event was great, it bugged me that the evening’s big award was Sportsman of the year. I felt like outstanding women athletes didn’t have much of a chance, and, well, I made a bit of a stink about it.

One year, I wrote a column suggesting that the committee had goofed in not choosing Suzie McConnell-Serio ’88, who had led the Cleveland Rockers on a run in the WNBA playoffs, as the winner. (I hope in making the case, I wasn’t too harsh on the winner: Joe Paterno.) One thing led to another, and since 1999, Dapper Dan has honored both a Sportsman and a Sportswoman of the Year.  That’s a pretty small legacy, sure, but it’s one I’m proud of.

Here’s the volleyball team’s competition: Meghan Klingenberg, a Pittsburgh native who played for the 2009 NCAA women’s soccer champions; Pitt associate athletic director Carol Sprague, who has presided over the rise of the school’s women’s basketball team; and McConnell-Serio, now coach of the rapidly improving Duquesne women’s basketball team.

That’s an impressive list, but I don’t see anyone else with three consecutive NCAA titles.

Vote soon! Voting ends Jan. 25.

Lori Shontz, senior editor

Entry filed under: Penn State women's volleyball. Tags: Dapper Dan, Joe Paterno, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Suzie McConnell-Serio, women's volleyball.