SACRAMENTO—In its first five NCAA tournament matches this season, Penn State had ripped through its opponents in 15 straight games with a 13-point average margin of victory per game.

But when push came to shove and six-time NCAA champion Stanford was staring down at them with all the marbles on the line, the Nittany Lions showed they can perform when the heat is turned up.

After nearly squandering a 2-0 lead, Penn State weathered the storm and turned in a masterful Game 5 performance to beat tournament top-seed Stanford, 30-25, 30-26, 23-30, 19-30, 15-8, for the 2007 NCAA championship in front of a crowd of 13,631 at Arco Arena.

The win gave Penn State (34-2) its second NCAA title. The Nittany Lions also defeated Stanford for the 1999 crown. This was the record-tying third meeting between the two teams in an NCAA title match (UCLA and Stanford have also met three times for the title) and was the first five-game championship match since rally scoring was introduced in 2001.

“We didn’t really want to look at the momentum. We just wanted to start from the beginning of Game 5,” said Penn State sophomore setter Alisha Glass, who was named to the all-tournament team. “In between those games we just said, ‘Look, we’re here, we got here, this is our goal and who says we’re not going to come out and be strong.’ We did and we won. So I think it was a collective effort from everyone—our bench, our fans. Everyone understood that we wanted to get it done and it was nice that we could.”

Penn State, which after losing to Stanford, 3-2, earlier in the season, won its final 26 matches, led 2-0 early in Game 5 and then broke open a 4-4 tie with a six-point run that gave the Nittany Lions a 10-4 lead that would never be seriously threatened. Tournament most outstanding player Megan Hodge wrapped up the national title with a kill off a Glass set. Stanford had only one kill and hit negative .158 in Game 5.

“This means everything,” said Hodge, who connected for a match-high 26 kills, hit .286 and had 10 digs. “We trained every day for this and talked every day about winning the national championship.”

Stanford, which committed 19 hitting errors and 11 service errors in the match, dug itself out of a 2-0 hole by hitting a combined .442 in its wins in the third and fourth games. The Cardinal hit .535 in the fourth game without committing a single hitting error.

“It doesn’t matter who is on the other side of the net when somebody hits .535,” said Penn State coach Russ Rose.

Stanford (32-3), which lost to Nebraska in last year’s championship match, made its record 13th NCAA title match appearance.

“We’ve been down a lot throughout the season,” said Stanford junior middle blocker Foluke Akinradewo. “At the same time we thought we could fight back. We’re usually able to do that. Tonight, we came up short.”

Akinradewo and fellow all-tournament selectee Alix Klineman each had 18 kills for Stanford. Akinradewo had just one hitting error and finished the season hitting a national-best .499 (falling just .005 short of the NCAA single-season, 30-point scoring record). Klineman, a freshman, added 15 digs, while junior Cynthia Barboza had 16 kills, 12 digs and hit .342.

“Penn State came a long way since we played them the first time,” said Barboza, referring to Stanford’s 3-2 triumph in New Haven, Conn., back in September. “A lot of teams grow over the course of the year and Penn State did a lot of growing. They played a great match.”

Nicole Fawcett (19 kills) and Christa Harmotto (13 kills, .435 hitting) were also key contributors for Penn State, along with freshman Arielle Wilson (12 kills, .500 hitting). Wilson hit .618 in Penn State’s six NCAA matches, but did not qualify for the tournament record (75-swing minimum; Wilson had 68).

Penn State, which hit a national-best .350 this season (with Harmotto and Wilson both ranking in the top 5), hit .317 in the match and obliterated the NCAA tournament record for hitting percentage by 55 points. Penn State, ranked No. 1 in the country in the final six Molten/Volleyball Top 20 media polls, hit .424 in its six tournament matches, bettering Long Beach State’s .369 mark in 1995. The Nittany Lions also tied an NCAA tournament mark with 43 aces (Long Beach State had 43 in 1998).

“We didn’t relax when we were up 2-0,” said Rose. “You don’t get here by having that as one of your traits. And Stanford being down 0-2, they wouldn’t get here having a trait like that. So when things were going bad we knew we still had a fifth game. The opportunity was out there and we seized it.”


National Semifinal #1
Stanford d. USC 23-20, 30-20, 30-25, 20-30, 16-14

A trip to the national championship match boiled down to a few inches for USC.

The Trojans (29-5), back in the semifinals for the first time since 2004, held a slim 14-13 lead in Game 5 and had All-American standout and Honda Award finalist Asia Kaczor (82 swings in the match) serving match point.

Kaczor’s serve sailed between Stanford defenders Barboza and freshman Cassidy Lichtman in the middle back and hit just inches outside the end line, tying the game at 14-14 and giving Stanford the side out.

A Barboza-Franci Girard block on a Kaczor kill attempt made it 15-14 and Barboza ended the two-hour, 25-minute marathon thriller with a kill off a Bryn Kehoe set.

“We were trying to figure out how to win the next point,” said Kehoe, who played in three NCAA title matches in her four-year career and is Stanford’s all-time assists leader.

“When it was 14-13 it looked bad. I was worried at first,” said Akinradewo. “Bryn said it’s best to play in the moment. Everybody pulled through in the end.”

Stanford was triumphant despite hitting a combined .160 in the final two games. Akinradewo had 26 kills and hit .523 in the match. Barboza added 17 kills and 15 digs. Klineman had 14 kills and 30 digs, while Kehoe handed out 70 assists. Klineman’s 30 dig-performance was just the fourth time in program history 30 or more digs have been recorded in a match (freshman libero Gabi Ailes had a record 31 earlier in the season).

“I’m pretty sure this was the best volleyball match on the planet today,” said Stanford coach John Dunning. “USC was three times as good as the first time when we played them. Mick (USC coach Haley) and I have seen each other many times. This was an awesome match.”

Kaczor, an all-tournament selection, led all players with 29 kills. Senior Diane Copenhagen finished with 19 kills and had 33 digs. Alli Hillgren had 34 digs, while Taylor Carico had 56 assists. USC, which was 8-0 in five-game matches heading into the semifinals, played the final three games without freshman starting middle blocker Zoe Garrett (6 kills, .750 hitting) who was ill.

“I don’t have too many words when you lose one like that,” said USC coach Mick Haley. “I really like my team. We did about everything you could do to them to win the match. We are sorry we lost. We battled as hard as we could.”

“It’s a hard one to lose,” said Carico. “They played well and the same with us. When you are in battle, it hurts the most.”


National Semifinal #2
Penn State d. California 30-28, 30-25, 30-16

Penn State came out swinging from the get-go and advanced to its fifth NCAA championship match.

The Nittany Lions hit .350 in the first game and hit .424 in the second game—combining for 36 kills in games 1 and 2.

Penn State, which won the match in just 85 minutes, was also aided by a combined 34 Cal hitting and service errors. Cal, which swept defending NCAA champion Nebraska in the regional final, hit .121 in the contest, including negative .062 in Game 3.

“Penn State had answers for what we were trying to do,” said Cal coach Rich Feller. “They hit us harder than anyone has done in awhile.”

Fawcett (13 kills), Hodge (11 kills), Wilson (10 kills) and Harmotto (8 kills) led a balanced Penn State attack. The Nittany Lions hit .347 as a team.

Cal, the No. 10 seed in the NCAA tournament, finished 26-8 and made the program’s first national semifinal appearance and became the fifth Pac-10 Conference team to reach the NCAA semifinals.

“Cal more than had our attention,” said Rose. “They beat the defending national champion, 3-0.”

All-Americans Angie Pressey (15 kills) and Hana Cutura (9 kills) paced the Golden Bears.

“We didn’t just want to be here,” said Pressey. “We wanted to win. Being here wasn’t good enough.”

Happy Camper: Penn State All-American Nicole Fawcett clutches the NCAA championship trophy.

Stanford’s Cynthia Barboza (hitting) was playing in her second straight NCAA title match.

Christa Harmotto (3), the Big Ten Conference Player of the Year, hit .435 in the championship match.

Nittany Lion Wall: Alisha Glass (6), Christa Harmotto (3) and Megan Hodge (11) put up a triple block on Stanford’s Alix Klineman.

USC’s Asia Kaczor had 29 kills against Stanford.

Franci Girard was one of only two Stanford seniors this year.

Angie Pressey (hitting) had 15 kills against Penn State.