By Ethan Kasales
DigNittanyVolleyball.com
Story originally published by DigNittanyVolleyball.com. All credit in this story goes to them.
Jordan Hopp, a 6-foot-2 middle blocker from Alliance, Nebraska, announced her transfer from Iowa State to Penn State women’s volleyball Saturday evening on her Instagram account and will join the program after her graduation this spring.
Hopp, a member of the 2020 recruiting class, is technically a redshirt junior with two years of eligibility remaining due to her bonus season granted by the NCAA in the wake of COVID-19. She had 199 kills and led the Cyclones with a .325 hitting percentage in 2023, which ranked ninth among Big 12 players, and added a team-high 104 total blocks.
“I am excited to announce my commitment to Penn State,” Hopp wrote on Instagram. “Thank you Cyclone nation for the opportunities, love, and support. See you soon, Happy Valley.”
Hopp visited Penn State’s campus last Wednesday and Thursday, touring the facilities with the coaching staff and attending the men’s volleyball team’s sweep of Lees-McRae at Rec Hall. Hopp will join Penn State middle blockers Taylor Trammell, Maggie Mendelson, and Catherine Burke on the program’s 2024 roster. Hopp wore No. 5 in her photoshoot donning a couple different Penn State uniforms.
Hopp is the third player to join the Nittany Lions via the transfer portal this offseason, as they also landed Mendelson and pin hitter Caroline Jurevicius from Nebraska, both of whom are enrolled in classes at Penn State for the spring semester. After finishing up her undergraduate degree at Iowa State, Hopp will likely arrive in University Park sometime in May.
Hopp was a three-sport athlete at Alliance High School, also lettering all four years in basketball and track and field, but given her hometown’s lack of proximity to a club program (the closest being four hours away in Denver, Colorado, or six hours away in Lincoln, Nebraska), she did not play club volleyball growing up. Hopp had 623 kills and 407 total blocks for the Bulldogs, per MaxPreps, recording 100-plus blocks each of her final three varsity seasons.
“Because of where I lived, there was no national club around, so I decided to continue to play three sports in high school,” Hopp said in a November 2023 article. “During the summertime, I would sign up for the elite camps at Division I colleges and play with top recruits around the country. In between each camp, I participated in high school team camps for volleyball and basketball. It was always my goal to play Division I sports, but not until the high school level is when I truly found the passion for volleyball.”
Hopp took two swings in her collegiate debut as a true freshman in 2020 against Wayne State, then didn’t see any action the following season, but made solid strides as a junior in 2022, with her best performance coming against Penn State in LSU’s Tiger Challenge on September 2 in Baton Rouge. Hopp had a season-high 12 kills, hit .409, and added two total blocks and an ace in Penn State’s 3-1 win over the Cyclones, finishing the year with 35 kills and 22 total blocks.
“When you haven’t played club, it can be hard to catch up on all those reps, and that’s what Jordan was facing her first couple of years,” Iowa State head coach Christy Johnson-Lynch said in the same in-house article in which Hopp was quoted. “She was trying to catch up compared to other middles who came in who had so many more repetitions over the years.”
Hopp started all 30 matches for Iowa State in 2023, putting together by far her best collegiate season so far. Hopp had a career-high 14 kills in a pair of 3-2 road wins over Iowa and Houston, which eventually took No. 1 seed Stanford to five sets in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Hopp had seven total blocks against the Cougars and a career-high nine in a 3-2 road win over Grand Canyon on September 2, 2023.
Hopp will now have the chance to continue improving her game under the tutelage of Katie Schumacher-Cawley and her staff in the highly competitive environment of practice in South Gym at Rec Hall. She will compete with Trammell, Mendelson, and Burke for playing time.