Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association

Penn State's Owen Rose is the EIVA Defensive Player of the Week for Feb. 23, 2026. Owen put himself in the record books both for the No. 16 Nittany Lions and the NCAA during a sweep of two matches from Harvard. The redshirt senior middle blocker weekend closed with a 3-1 victory Feb. 21 as he recorded four kills on .273 hitting with three aces, two digs and four blocks. That followed a stunning performance Feb. 13, when he had five kills on an error-free six swings to hit .833, adding three digs and 14 blocks, four solo, in a three-set sweep. His blocking total breaks the program record for blocks in a match of any length, regardless of rally or side-out scoring. It’s the highest total in the nation this season for a three-set match and matches the 14 posted by North Greenville’s Landon Richter in a 3-2 win vs. Erskine on Feb. 13. This is the fourth time a student-athlete notched 14 blocks in a three-set match since the start of rally scoring in 2001, joining Hawaii’s Dejan Miladinovic (twice in 2001) and Ball State’s Matt Walsh (2015). His weekend total saw nine kills on .471 hitting, three aces, five digs and 18 blocks, averaging 2.57 blocks per set. Rose leads the EIVA with 67 total blocks and 1.37 blocks per set and he entered the weekend 13th in the nation in blocking. This is the fifth EIVA weekly honor of Rose’s career and his first of the season.