Jess Mruzik sat down in front of her name tag and microphone before the NCAA Tournament semifinals. She wears a bright pink bracelet. The press conference comes just over two months after Penn State women’s volleyball head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley announced she had been diagnosed with breast cancer but had no plans to stop coaching. In his third year leading the Nittany Lions, Schumacher-Cawley has been present every step of the way at Louisville, Kentucky, where Penn State is one of four teams remaining in the nation. After leading her team to a 33-2 overall record and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, Schumacher-Cawley was just two wins away from a national championship.

While one of the many goals Penn State set before the season was to win a national championship, winning is not the only goal the program is aiming for, but rather takes the bigger picture seriously. Despite this diagnosis, Schumacher-Cawley remains the passionate leader the team knew before her health problems. After playing two seasons at Purdue, fifth-year player Taylor Trammell transferred to Penn State just over a month after Schumacher-Cawley was hired as head coach of the Nittany Lions ahead of the 2022 season. Trammell’s three years at Penn State strengthened her bond with Schumacher-Cawley both on and off the field, and the same went for many of her teammates. Offensive lineman Camryn Hannah, who is in her second season at Penn State after three years at Clemson, has also seen the relationship between her and Schumacher-Cawley grow beyond player and coaching boundaries. trainer.

After eight years as head coach at UIC and one year at Penn, Schumacher-Cawley returned to his alma mater as associate head coach from 2018 to 2021 before taking over as assistant coach. chief to Russ Rose, who held the role for 43 years. This season has been a difficult one for Schumacher-Cawley due to her health condition, but she said every time she steps into the gym she feels instantly better. The upcoming dates Schumacher-Cawley mentioned will include at least one game, as Penn State advanced further in the NCAA Tournament than it did in 2017. In her first two seasons at the helm of Penn State, Schumacher-Cawley was eliminated in the regional semifinals, but after four wins to open the NCAA Tournament, she reached her first national semifinal as is the head coach.