IRVINE, Calif. - The kings and queens of college volleyball now both reside in University Park, Pa.

Less than a half-year after the Penn State women won the national title in Sacramento, Calif., the top-seeded Nittany Lion men made it a California repeat by defeating No. 2 Pepperdine, 3-1 (27-30, 33-31, 30-25, 30-23), for the NCAA men’s championship before a live national television audience and a crowd of 5,000 at UC Irvine’s Bren Events Center.

Penn State’s victory marks the fourth time the same institution has won both NCAA men’s and women’s titles in the same school year (Stanford last did it in the 1996-1997 campaign). Stanford is also the last school to win men’s and women’s titles in the same calendar year (1997).

The Nittany Lions have now won two men’s titles (The 1994 team was the first non-West Coast team to win the men’s crown). Veteran coach Mark Pavlik earned his first national title as his program extended its record for consecutive semifinal appearances to 10 years in a row.

“This replaces the 1972 Dairy Little League championship for me,” laughed the always witty Pavlik, an assistant coach on the 1994 team. “I’ve often said I have the title of head coach, but I’m the caretaker of this program that Tom Tait started and Tom Peterson put together. And given this opportunity where the players play the best and biggest match of their careers is very satisfying. They played better than I could coach.”

The title win was not without drama, however, for Penn State, which finished with the best final record of a men’s champion (30-1) since the 1995 UCLA team went 31-1.

A torrid 15-7 Penn State start in the opener quickly turned south when Pepperdine, a fifth seed in its conference tournament and the owner of an 8-8 record at one point in the season, ran off 23 of the final 35 points to snatch the opener from a team that ended up sitting perched atop the coaches and media polls for the final seven weeks of the season.

Pepperdine (17-11) turned up the pressure in Game 2 as well, backing Penn State into a pair of game-point situations that the Nittany Lions were able to fight out of. Consecutive kills by Ryan Sweitzer (for side out and a 32-31 lead) and Matt Anderson (game-winner) brought Penn State even at a game apiece.

The Nittany Lions pulled away from a slim 16-15 edge in Game 3 and took advantage of three Pepperdine hitting errors to close out the frame - including two induced by Penn State triple blocks (Luke Murray).

Penn State carried momentum into the finale, jumping out to leads of 6-0 (forcing Pepperdine to burn two quick timeouts) and 9-2. The Waves got no closer than four points the rest of the way. A Pepperdine hitting error on championship point sewed up the national title for Penn State.

“I’m awestruck at what just happened,” said the 6’10” Anderson, who was named the championship’s most outstanding player. “One of the main attributes of this team is to come back and put up a good fight.”

Penn State, which led the nation in hitting percentage this year, hit .407 in the title match (.466 in the final three games) with Murray, in his final collegiate outing, racking up his first career triple-double (63 assists, 12 digs and 11 total blocks).

“To hit over .400 in a national championship match against a team like Pepperdine speaks volumes to what Luke Murray has done with our offense all year,” said Pavlik.

Penn State also recorded a season-high 19 blocks and racked up 37.5 blocks during its stay in Orange County (4.69 per game).

“Anytime you block a player it takes them out of the offense and out of the flow,” said Anderson. “If you put hands in front of their face, you are making them try to swing around us.”

“It’s pretty obvious Penn State has some good hitters and blockers,” said Pepperdine coach Marv Dunphy, who earlier in the tournament dubbed the 2008 Penn State team as the best he’s ever seen come out of the Midwest or East regions in men’s volleyball. “Give them some credit. They have some big talent.”

Anderson finished with 29 kills and hit .451 (51 swings). Max Lipsitz recorded a career-high 17 kills (hitting .500) and also had six blocks. Fellow middle blocker Max Holt added 12 kills and nine blocks.

Freshman libero Dennis Del Valle tied a career-high with 16 digs and was shockingly left off the all-tournament team. Del Valle, who made a jaw-dropping full-court save that turned into a kill for Anderson in the semifinals, also dug a hard-hit Carroll serve late in Game 2 that helped turned the tide back in Penn State’s favor.

“It was the biggest play in that game,” said Pavlik.

Carroll finished with a match-high 35 kills (on 74 swings) for Pepperdine. J.D. Schleppenbach had 15 kills to cap a strong tournament showing (29 kills, .481 hitting).

“They made great plays at good times,” said Carroll, who led the nation in kills per game this year. “We were unable to rally with them for those last few points. They made good plays in the second game.”

Pepperdine setter Jonathan Winder capped off a sensational career with 60 assists. Winder set the Waves in three NCAA semifinals - his first appearance as a freshman ended with an NCAA championship in 2005.

“It was a great decision to come here,” said Winder. “It’s hard to believe it’s over. Pepperdine has to be the classiest school in America. There is no place like it.”

Outside of a second-game hiccup, the Nittany Lions were dominating in this victory over MIVA champion Ohio State. It was Penn State’s third victory over Ohio State in 2008.

Penn State, which hit .399 as a team this season, hit .410 in the match, including a .552 effort in Game 1 (1 error) and a .619 performance in the finale (2 errors).

The Nittany Lions also held a 115-91 serves attempted advantage and outblocked Ohio State 18.5-11.0.

“We did a great job of not over-running the sets and getting to where we needed to be,” said Lipsitz, who had seven blocks in the contest. “When you block balls, it gets everybody fired up.”

Anderson led the Nittany Lions with 30 kills (.469 hitting on 49 swings). Junior Ryan Sweitzer added 17 kills and hit .303. Murray finished with 50 assists, while Del Valle had 14 digs, including the aforementioned end-line save he passed over his shoulder the length of the court to Anderson who put it down for a kill.

Fourth-seed Ohio State (20-8) hit only .108 in the match and made 45 hitting or service errors. Brett Versen led the Buckeyes with 13 kills. Ohio State was making its 15th national semifinal appearance.

“Games three and four our offense really struggled,” said Ohio State coach Pete Hanson, whose team was tied 15-15 with Penn State in the third game. “Penn State put together a strong run of serves and really took over on the block.”

When teams hit at a .500 clip, good things are bound to happen as they did for Pepperdine, which hit exactly .500 (games of .379, .542 and .600) in its semifinal victory over No. 3 Long Beach State before the largest semifinal crowd (5,000) since since 2002. This was the first time two West Coast teams faced each other in the semifinals since the tournament went to its current format in 1974.

“I think we hit the court pretty well,” said Pepperdine coach Marv Dunphy, whose team defeated Long Beach State in the MPSF semifinals and went 3-1 against the 49ers this year.

Carroll led the Waves with 15 kills (.300), Schleppenbach had 14 kills and hit .778 (no errors), while Cory Riecks added 12 kills (.474). Winder doled out 39 assists, while sophomore Sean Grubbs was perfect on 33 service receptions.

Long Beach State hit only .136 in the first two games, but rebounded in the finale to hit .500.

National co-player of the year Paul Lotman, who hit .000 in the first two games, had 14 kills, despite being saddled with a Pepperdine block that featured Winder (6’8”) and Carroll (6’7”). Sophomore Dean Bittner added 12 kills.

“Tonight it didn’t go our way and a lot of that had to do with what Pepperdine did,” said Long Beach State coach Alan Knipe, who was attempting to become just the fourth person to win a men’s NCAA title as a player and coach. “They played an extremely cohesive, high level of volleyball.”