University Park, Pa., Jan. 5, 2005 ¨C Senior women¡¯s volleyball player Sam Tortorello (Shorewood, Ill.) is one of four finalists for the Honda Volleyball Award, given to the top female collegiate athlete in the sport. Tortorello joins Washington¡¯s Courtney Thompson and Nebraska¡¯s Melissa Elmer and Christina Houghtelling, with the winner after nationwide balloting becoming a nominee for the Honda-Broderick Cup, awarded annually to the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year. American Honda will donate $1,000 to the women¡¯s athletic fund of each nominee¡¯s university, while the winner¡¯s program will earn $5,000.

Also a finalist last season, Tortorello is Penn State¡¯s second Honda Award finalist this fall as she joins Tiffany Weimer of the women¡¯s soccer team. Tortorello earns Penn State¡¯s seventh Honda Award nomination, joining Bonnie Bremner (1997 & 1998), Terri Zemaitis (1997) and Lauren Cacciamani (1998 & 1999), who earned the overall award in 1999.

Earning her third consecutive AVCA All-America honor and her second straight First Team AVCA All-America accolade, Tortorello was also named the Big Ten Player of the Year and became the Big Ten career assists leader. In her last weekend of Big Ten play, Tortorello passed four-time All-American Bonnie Bremner to move into second on Penn State¡¯s career assist list and ended her career with 6,085, also becoming only the second Penn State player in history to record more than 6,000 career assists. She led the conference with 13.28 assists per game and directed the Penn State offense to a .307 hitting percentage. She had five hitters averaging more than 2.50 kills per game and was an offensive option herself, recording at least one kill in every match of the year, including three or more kills on 21 occasions. She ranked second on the team in aces with 28 and digs with an average of 2.48. An all-around player, Tortorello had 23 multiple-block contests this year. She led the team with nine double-doubles and was named to the All-Tournament teams at the AVCA/NACWAA Showcase, the Nebraska Players Challenge and the Penn State Classic, earning Most Outstanding Player accolades at the Hawaiian Airlines Classic.

Penn State ended its season with a 31-3 record after winning its third consecutive Big Ten title with a perfect 20-0 record.

For more information on the Penn State women¡¯s volleyball team, please visit www.GoPSUsports.com.