Plum grad Magnusen goes into Penn State Behrend Hall of Fame for volleyball accomplishments
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Phil Pisano has a photo on the wall of his office at Penn State Behrend, a memento from his time as the school’s women’s volleyball coach. It depicts the team in the aftermath of its victory in the 2013 Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference title match.
Pisano, now the men’s volleyball coach at Behrend, said he looks at the photo almost every day. And in that frozen-in-time moment, one feature stands out: senior setter Chelsea Magnusen clutching the jersey of best friend and Behrend teammate Cat Healy.
In the summer just before that triumphant 2013 season, Healy was killed in a car accident that involved a drunk driver.
“Going into my senior year without her really kind of … us as a team choosing to play for her and honor her, it really made winning that even more rewarding,” said Magnusen, a Plum grad and 2014 Behrend alumnae.
Added Pisano in an email to TribLive: “It was a brutal and difficult time, but the team managed to battle through the season and find truly joyful moments even while dealing with immense grief. Somehow that team went on to win the conference championship, and a huge part of that was Chelsea’s fantastic play.”
Magnusen was the driving force behind that championship team. She averaged 7.86 assists and 2.20 digs per set while adding 117 kills and 56 service aces in a performance that earned her AMCC Player of the Year honors and capped her stellar career as the team’s setter.
She left Behrend with career numbers of 3,031 assists, 919 digs, 424 kills and 132 aces.
On Oct. 5, Magnusen, returned to Behrend for the first time in a long time to receive one final honor. She was inducted into the school’s hall of fame.
Magnusen was visiting her family in Plum during the holidays when she got the news of the induction.
“I would say I was surprised, first and foremost,” said Magnusen, who lives in Boynton Beach, Fla., where she works in digital marketing and is a licensed aesthetician, “and then quite elated with gratitude for my entire career playing there.”
Volleyball no longer is part of Magnusen’s life. She said she played a little on the beach when she first moved to Florida, but years in the sport took their toll on her knees, so she has focused her athletic pursuits on running a half marathon later this month.
But she had a chance to celebrate her volleyball accomplishments — and the memory of her teammate — one more time. Magnusen said she never reflected on or talked about her play all that much while she was active. Now, she said, she can be proud of her career.
“I think the biggest thing is being able to say that I did it,” she said. “I feel like the hall of fame just kind of made everything a little bit more meaningful and worth it.”