Penn State Altoona Adds Men’s Volleyball as Varsity Sport

Thursday, August 2, 2012 - 541 hits

ALTOONA, Pa. — Penn State Altoona announced the addition of men's volleyball to its varsity athletics program on Thursday. The team will begin its first season of competition in the 2013 spring semester.

Men's volleyball becomes the 16th varsity sport offered by Penn State Altoona and is the first addition to the school's athletics program since 2009 when women's bowling was implemented. As with the school's other varsity sports, the team will compete at the NCAA Division III level.

The first-year program will be led by Phil Peterman, who also enters his fifth year as the head coach of Penn State Altoona's women’s volleyball team. Last fall, Peterman guided the Lady Lions to their first Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference championship since 2006.

Peterman has also served as the head coach of the men's volleyball club team at Penn State Altoona. Last season, the squad competed in the National Collegiate Volleyball Federation Club Championship Tournament in Kansas City, Missouri and finished in fifth place out of 24 teams in the Men's D1AAA division of the event.

"Coach Peterman has done an outstanding job with our women's volleyball program, and I am happy to have him now leading our men's team," said Penn State Altoona Director of Athletics Fredina M. Ingold. "We have had a strong men's club volleyball team for a number of years, and I look forward to them taking their success to the next level."

"I am very happy and excited to be starting this brand new program and to be named the head coach of the men's volleyball team," said Peterman. "I am very proud of the group of guys that I have coming back this upcoming season from last year's club team who represented our school at the club national championships. This core group is excited to join the ranks of the NCAA."

The men's volleyball team will play its inaugural season as an independent school before officially joining the AMCC in 2014.