State College grad Leath lights up night in Rec Hall return

Taylor Leath had sat in the bleachers of Rec Hall so many times, for so many matches, and seen so many great players step onto that floor.

She wanted to be out there too.

“I watched Megan Hodge and Deja McClendon and Nicole Fawcett and all these players,” Leath said. “I looked up to them. They are some of the Penn State greats. It’s awesome to step on this floor and play with the team that I went to and be able to perform.”

The 2014 State College Area High School graduate fulfilled that dream this past weekend, and earned the respect of Nittany Lion players and fans Saturday.

She got their attention the most when she played her biggest in the biggest points.

Leading No. 19 North Carolina with 18 kills, 16 digs and two aces — adding four blocks, including a couple on returning All-American Haleigh Washington — in a come-from-behind 3-2 win over the No. 9 Nittany Lions on their home floor earns a lot of attention.

“It’s kind of a great story if you can do that. It doesn’t always happen,” said Carolina coach Joe Sagula, who has taken players to matches near their hometowns before, but never was that home in the shadow of a record-setting, seven-time national-championship-winning program.

“When we recruited her, we always knew that Taylor was going to be a winner,” Sagula said. “Just the kind of kid who had a winning attitude, competitive, that wanted to drive people, succeed and be a good leader.”

Leath had a number of connections to the Penn State program. She had been to camps and head coach Russ Rose had worked with her when she was younger. His wife, Lori, also had been a volunteer with the Lady Little Lion program. She even knew some of the older Nittany Lions on the team, who were around when she was in high school.

But she also had the dreams of playing on the Rec Hall floor, under all those championship banners — she had never played a match there before Friday — and she knew this weekend would be special for three matches to open the season.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had this experience with a court,” said Leath, who is the only Centre County athlete to be named Gatorade Pennsylvania Player of the Year in any sport. “There are so many memories with this court. It took me a little while to get all that out and play my game. It definitely was a shocker for me.”

It shocked her so much, she wasn’t playing like herself in Friday’s opener, a 3-0 sweep of Georgia Southern. She attempted a team-high 21 spikes, but managed just two kills against four errors — half the entire team’s total — and hit minus-.095.

“It took me a while to move past (the situation),” Leath said, “and be who I’m supposed to be.”

The next morning against West Virginia she didn’t play nearly as much. In one set she took four swings, delivering two kills with no errors.

Then the big match rolled around Saturday night, and it seemed those butterflies were back in force. Most of her swings in the first two sets were soft, roll shots or tips, with a couple errors thrown in there.

“The key thing for myself, I’ve got to be patient so we don’t pull the plug on her and … keep instilling confidence in her and stay with her game,” Sagula said. “I’m sure there are some nerves. This is something that a kid, grows up in this backyard, thinks I want to play here in Rec Hall and this legendary program.”

Leath also was getting encouragement from her teammates to keep swinging, to turn up the heat and don’t hold back. “Swing Tay, Swing Tay, we’ll cover you,” Leath recounted.

Pulled briefly in the second set, she found her form in the third and began firing with power. She finished by taking 51 swings — more than anyone else in the match — and after hitting negative numbers in the first two sets she finished hitting .294.

Most of all, she had the clutch points. The biggest of which were a block and two kills, including the victory-clinching kill, in the final three points of the night.

“I thought she played terrific tonight,” said Rose, who was extremely complimentary of Leath and the entire North Carolina team while unloading a harsh critique of his own charges.

But it was a thrilling night for Leath and the Tar Heels.

“It’s a historical win,” Leath said. “People don’t come into Rec Hall and beat Penn State every day. It’s a great accomplishment for this team. It’s a great note to put down in history, but at the same time we have a long season ahead of us.”

This story was originally published August 28, 2016 at 9:56 PM with the headline "State College grad Leath lights up night in Rec Hall return."