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.
