PSU had a basketball game at 1:30 this afternoon (we beat Mount St Mary’s) and I felt pretty good so I decided to take in the women’s volleyball game at 4:00.
Penn State was hosting the regional finals against Cal for the right to head to the Final Four in Omaha to defend the national championship that they won last year. Coming into the season, PSU was a favorite to repeat as champs because they returned pretty much everyone from last year’s squad. However, I don’t think anyone imagined how good this team would become. Most volleyball aficionados have labeled the team the greatest women’s collegiate volleyball team ever assembled.
The records that the team has set so far this year are mind boggling. Coming into this afternoon’s match not only was the team 35-0 for the year but they have swept EVERY match 3-0. They are the first team in NCAA history to go through the entire regular season winning every set. They had won 61 straight matches and 106 straight sets (105 this year and the fifth game of the NCAA final last year) over the last two years. both NCAA records.
During NCAA play, the gals continued the dominance that they showed during the regular season winning their first three matches handily. This afternoon’s match figured to be a different story however. Cal was the eighth ranked team in the country (PSU has been the unanimous #1 all season) and looked like a team that wouldn’t be intimidated by PSU. Cal did not disappoint.
In the first set, Cal jumped out to a 7-1 lead over PSU (a set is played to 25) which was the first time that anyone has held a six point lead over PSU all year. The Bears stretched that to 14-7, then played PSU even up over the next few minutes to take what looked to be a commanding 19-13 lead. PSU’s record 106 set streak looked to be over.
That’s when the girls reached down deep for something extra. As the 4000+ fans went absolutely nuts, PSU won 12 of the next 14 points to win the set 25-21 to keep the streak alive. To come back from that far down against a top ten team was monumental. It was probably the best women’s volleyball game that I’ve ever seen. After that set one win, the rest of the afternoon was anticlimactic as the Nits rolled, winning the second and third sets to advance to the Final Four.
Volleyball legend Karch Kiraly was in town to broadcast today’s game on ESPNU (the Final Four is on ESPN2 with PSU’s first match next Thursday at 9PM EST). In this AP story about the PSU women, Karch had a couple of notable quotes:
“I’ve certainly never ever seen something like this in volleyball,” said Karch Kiraly
“If they run the table,” Kiraly said, “they will have to be put up there with any team in any sport as the most dominant season that we have seen.”
When makes this run even more fun is that we might get to do it all over again this spring when the PSU men take over the PSU volleyball courts to start the defense of their national title that they won last year. State College is truly “Happy Volley”.
BTW – I feel pretty good even with the “doubleheader” that I pulled. No major coughing attacks to speak of.
Glad to hear that you did so well today.
Another Karch Kiraly quote I ran across:
“It’s not many Penn State players who’ve had an impact at the next level, the national team, the Olympic level,†Kiraly said. “With (Christa) Harmotto and (Nicole) Fawcett and (Megan) Hodge and (Alisha) Glass and whoever else, everybody’s looking so good on that team. They could practically take that whole team out the national team — it might be the national team.â€
PSU meets Nebraska at the Qwest Center in Omaha tomorrow night (ESPN2 at 9PM EST, 8PM CST). The Nebraska coach just compared the PSU gals to the Russian hockey machine that ruled international hockey in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. He’s planning on showing “Miracle on Ice”, the inspirational story of the US Hockey team’s Olympic win over the Russians at Lake Placid, to his team tonight to get them inspired for the match tomorrow. The Qwest Center is sold out (seats 17,500) and 95% of those fans will be pulling for the Cornhuskers so it should be quite a match.
One streak is over. PSU jumped on Nebraska and won the first two sets handily (25-17, 25-18) to extend their consecutive sets won streak to 111. Then things went rapidly south. Suddenly, the PSU women couldn’t handle Nebraska’s serves and the Cornhuskers rolled to an easy third set win (25-15). Their momentum continued into set four where they won again, although not nearly as easily (25-22). When Nebraska got a two point lead at 10-8 in the fifth set, things looked bleak for the Lions (the fifth set is only played to 15). But following a time out, the Nits reeled off six straight points and seven of eight to take a 15-11 victory.
The match was one of the most exciting sporting events that I’ve watched. Nebraska had gone down 0-2 against Washington in the regional finals last weekend but came back dramatically to win in five. The 17,000 plus fans were go absolutely nuts as home team looked like they might do it again.
PSU’s win sets up a rematch with Stanford for the NCAA title (Sat night at 8PM eastern – ESPN2 coverage). Stanford was the last team to beat PSU when they met in a September 2007 match early in last year’s campaign (PSU won 26 straight after that ending the season by beating Stanford in five sets for the NCAA crown). Stanford will be trying to avoid become the first school to lose three straight NCAA championship games (coincidently, PSU was almost the first school to lose three straight – when PSU won their first title in 1999, they had lost in the finals the two previous years). This year, Penn State will be trying to become the fourth school to go undefeated for an entire season (Long Beach State, Southern Cal, and Nebraska are the others).
PSU claims the NCAA crown by sweeping Stanford 3-0 in a somewhat anticlimactic win when compared to the thriller on Thursday night.
While the team’s 111 consecutive set wins streak was broken, the Nits did set several other records along the way. Their win on Thursday night broke Nebraska’s winning streak of 93 straight matches in their home state. The championship final win extends their Nits NCAA record of consecutive matches won to 64 (and counting). They also set an NCAA record for fewest sets lost in a season with 2. PSU are the first team to ever have their entire starting lineup named as an All-American (four players made 1st team, two players made 2nd team). They also became the first team to have every player in the starting lineup hit over .300 for the season. PSU senior Nicolle Fawcett was named the National Player of the Year.
Congrats to the girls for their accomplishments.