Stacey Gordon had her mind made up. She was going to play volleyball at Penn State. On her way to State College, Pa., however, the Ontario, Canada native made a stop in Columbus. The stop turned out to be permanent.

“I just had it in my head that I wanted to go to Penn State. I was dead set on it for about two years,” Gordon said. “But, then I started to look at other schools, and it just clicked. I’m going to Ohio State.”

Her decision to ditch the blue and white for the scarlet and gray has turned out to be positive for both Gordon and the No. 10 Buckeye women’s volleyball team, which compiled a 25-3 regular season record on its way to a second place finish in the Big Ten.

The freshman outside hitter was recently named to the All-Big Ten team along with teammates Katie Virtue and Anne Botica. She also led the Buckeyes in kills and digs on her way to being unanimously selected as the Big Ten Freshman of the Year.

Along with the accolades, Gordon has earned the respect of her teammates, coaches, and opposing teams. All of this comes as no surprise to anyone that knows her.

“Stacey came in, and it wasn’t like, oh, we have to take care of the freshman,” said OSU junior Suzie Stiling, who was named honorable mention All-Big Ten. “She came in, and she made an impact. We expected that.”

That impact includes torturing the school that she passed up. In the Buckeyes’ two wins this year against Penn State, Gordon has put up huge numbers, including a 25-kill, 21-dig performance in an upset of the then-No. 6 Nittany Lions on Sept. 26.

“From the very beginning, when I knew we were going to play Penn State, I said ‘I want to kill them’,” she said. “I wanted to show them that I’m proud to be a Buckeye.”

The Buckeyes are likewise proud of her, but life didn’t always used to be about kills and digs for the young Canadian.

Growing up in Oshawa, Ontario, Gordon fell in love with all sports. A self-proclaimed tomboy, she was heavily influenced by her family interest in the sporting world.

It wasn’t until the sixth grade that she decided to focus on the sport of volleyball. Her older brother, Brad Gordon, had taken up the sport seriously, and she always looked up to him.

“From the very beginning, my brother had a huge influence on me,” Stacey Gordon said. “I hadn’t really narrowed it down to a certain sport that I wanted to play, and he had already been playing volleyball for three years, so I said, ‘hey, maybe I’ll play volleyball.”

“They really fed off each other,” said Stacey’s father, Stan Gordon. “Naturally, they had their little battles, but they’re so supportive of each other.”

Gordon’s volleyball career took a detour in 1999 when her high school, Eastdale Collegiate, completely did away with all sports.

“The high school scene down here is so big,” she said. “I hear people talking about high school this and high school that. It makes me mad because I never really got to have that.”

Fortunately for her, she was able to benefit by playing on a club team, the Ganaraska Wolves, which she captained for four years.

She was also able to surprise herself by making the Canadian Junior National team, where she played for three years against some of the best players in the world.

“It was an amazing time,” she said. “Not a lot of people get to see Cuba or Mexico play. They’re huge girls and they play such a different style.”

The traveling that she was able to experience with the team makes her current trips across the Midwest to go against Big Ten foes look like a jog from High St. to Neil Ave.

The international experience has helped her with the transition to college, but as with any incoming freshman, student-athlete or not, there was still some anxiety when she first came to OSU. Gordon’s family has been able to help with that.

“She e-mails us or we talk on the phone every day at least once,” Stan Gordon said.

Her parents try to make the trip down to Columbus as often as they can, which came as no surprise to her.

“I expected them to come down as much as they could, because I can’t really describe a game or the feeling of a win over the phone,” she said.

Another challenge that Gordon faced when she came to Columbus was fitting in with her teammates. She said that there was a little uncertainty about fitting in, but the players on the team say that once she opened up, she became one of the girls.

“I was still a little shy when I first got here, but I soon found out that I had a lot in common with the girls on the team,” Stacey Gordon said.

“She just like one of us,” said Botica, a senior outside hitter who also hails from Ontario. “She walked in and fit right in with all of us.”

On and off the court, Gordon is like two different people. During a match, she is intense and focused on beating the opponent. Spectators would struggle to see that she’s having fun.

“If I get a kill, you probably won’t see me smile,” she said. “In fact, I kind of have a mean look on my face, but that’s just the competitiveness in me.”

When the match is over, she likes to go dancing, shop, or go to the movies. Her teammates say that this is when she becomes a different person.

“She’s a big goof,” Botica said. “She’s always trying to make everyone laugh.”

After college, Gordon aspires to continue with volleyball in some capacity, whether it be as a professional or as a coach. She also hopes to one day help lead the Canadian National team to their first ever Olympics.

“We’ve had kids that have come through our program in past years that have gone on to do what she wants to do, in terms of being on national teams or playing professionally,” OSU women’s volleyball coach Jim Stone said. “She’s definitely a capable player.”

Before she can look forward to the future, though, she has three more years left to be a thorn in the side of many a Big Ten foe. She just could be the player to lead the Buckeyes to a National Championship some day.

“I still have three more years, and we’re going to have a lot of new players coming, but, hopefully down the road, I could say that we are national champions,” she said.

Gordon and her teammates can start that quest at 7 p.m. Friday when they play a first round NCAA tournament game against Robert Morris at St. John Arena.