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Christa Harmotto

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Christa Harmotto

Christa Deanne Harmotto Dietzen (born October 12, 1986) is an American former professional volleyball player who played as a middle blocker for the United States women's national volleyball team. She played college volleyball for the Penn State women's volleyball team, and won back to back national championships in 2007 and 2008. Harmotto won gold with the national team at the 2014 World Championship, silver at the 2012 London Summer Olympics, and bronze at the 2015 World Cup and 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

Christa Harmotto was born in Sewickley, Pennsylvania and attended Hopewell High School in Aliquippa, where she was a three-year letterwinner in volleyball and two-year letterwinner in basketball.

As a high school senior in 2004, she was named the Pennsylvania State Gatorade Player of the Year and was also an All-American. She was a member of the 2004 USA Women's Junior National Team that won the NORCECA Championship in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and was also selected to the 2005 USA Junior National Team that competed in Ankara, Turkey, at the FIVB Under-20 World Championships.

She set a school record 183 blocks in her junior year at Hopewell and in 2004–05 as a senior she set a school record for hitting percentage at .595. She led Hopewell to a No. 1 Pennsylvania ranking and also helped her squad to a 59–0 record against WPIAL opponents. She played club volleyball for Pittsburgh Renaissance that qualified for the Junior Olympics. Harmotto was considered a top 15 recruit for the class of 2005.

Harmotto is a middle hitter and her kills are fast and hard to defend, which is why she had a .492 hitting percentage in 2007 and led the nation in hitting percentage for most of the season in 2008 with a .486 percentage. She is also known as one of the nations top blockers, as she had 200 blocks in 2007 and 166 in 2008.

Harmotto is an education major and was named ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American of the Year in 2008. She has also been named Academic All-Big Ten in 2006, 2007 and 2008. She says her goals after her Penn State career is over is to play internationally and go to the Olympics.

She set the Penn State record for blocks in a four-game match with 13 versus Southern California, and also led the team in blocking with 1.50 blocks per game. She recorded at least six kills in 28 of 29 matches she played in. Harmotto was on her way to becoming a first or second team All-American before she tore her ACL in the last home match of the Big Ten, thereby missing every NCAA match. Despite the season-ending injury, she was named an AVCA Honorable Mention All-American for her efforts and contributions in the regular season.

Harmotto recovered from her injury, and posted an impressive sophomore campaign. She played in 111 of 114 games that the Nittany Lions played and ranked first on the team in blocks per game (1.58), second on the squad in hitting percentage (.405) and third on the team in kills per game (2.85). Her average of 1.58 blocks per game ranks tied for 10th on Penn State's all-time single-season record list, equaling Terri Zemaitis' 1997 mark. She had a career high 17 kills on .483 hitting in the win versus Minnesota en route to being named the conference player of the week. She helped Penn State to the NCAA Regional Final.

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