By Marissa Masano / The Jambar
As Youngstown State University gears up for fall classes, the YSU women’s volleyball team has been hard at work over the summer in preparation for the 2025 season.
The Penguins began preseason training Aug. 3 under second-year Head Coach Riley Jarrett. The 17-player roster, which includes 10 newcomers, wrapped up exhibition play Aug. 23 at Bowling Green State University.
Senior Abbie Householder returns for her fourth year, along with fellow senior Julia Sell. Senior Bianca Giglio also returns for her second season at YSU after transferring from Marshall University.
Householder comes off an award-winning junior campaign. The Ohio native was named to the 2024 All-Horizon League Second Team and earned YSU’s Female PNC Achievers Award for Fall 2024. She started all 30 matches, played in every set and ranked second in the conference in both kills and points per set.
This season, Jarrett hopes to complement Householder’s strengths on the offensive side of the ball.
“On the court, off the court, she’s definitely going to be one of our go-tos, but we’re hopeful that we have a lot of other offensive options that are going to be able to help [Householder] out this year,” Jarrett said.
Sell started 13 of 15 matches last season before a lower-body injury ended her season. Giglio appeared in 30 matches with 17 starts during her first year with the Penguins.
Other returning players from the 2024 squad include juniors Gabriela Machin and Maria Insana, along with sophomores Teagan Ng and Juliana Rivera.
Two mid-year transfers who participated in the 2025 spring season look to make an impact this fall. Redshirt freshman Niyah Lester transferred from Ball State University, while sophomore Taya Nordmann joined the program from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville after starting 29 of 30 matches as a freshman. Nordmann finished second in the Ohio Valley Conference in blocks per set.
The team’s most recent addition is redshirt freshman Ava Prince, a transfer from St. Francis University.
The program also welcomed seven freshmen as part of the 2025 recruiting class. When recruiting, Jarrett said she looked for certain qualities that would further grow the program’s culture.
“I tell our people we like to recruit winners. A lot of them come from successful high school [and] club programs. So we’re really wanting to build a winning culture here that hates losing,” Jarrett said.
In Jarrett’s first season at the helm, YSU finished 9-21 overall and 3-15 in Horizon League play.
The Penguins open the 2025 campaign at home with the YSU Invitational, presented by Mercy Health. They will host Mercyhurst University and Duquesne University on Aug. 29 inside the Zidian Family Arena at Beeghly Center. The invitational concludes Aug. 30 with a matchup against Canisius University.
YSU will then hit the road for tournaments at the Altoona Grand Red Flash Classic on Sept. 5 and the Steve Baumrind Invitational on Sept. 12.
