SB Nation Pittsburgh - Penn State Women's Volleyball Wins Fourth Straight National Titlehttps://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/48827/pitt-fv.png2010-12-18T23:31:33-05:00http://pittsburgh.sbnation.com/rss/stream/16463652010-12-18T23:31:33-05:002010-12-18T23:31:33-05:00Penn State Volleyball Claims Fourth Straight Title
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<p>With its 109-match winning streak snapped in September, Penn State had only one streak left to worry about: its consecutive national championship streak.</p>
<p>The Lions kept it going for a fourth straight year in dominant fashion on Saturday night with a 3-0 win (25-20, 27-25, 25-20) over California in the national title game at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri.</p>
<p>Senior Blair Brown led the Nittany Lions with 18 kills, including eight of the team's 18 in the final set. Brown and her fellow seniors Alyssa D'Errico, who served up an ace in her final match in a Penn State uniform, and Arielle Wilson, who chipped in 12 kills on .391 hitting, leave Happy Valley as the only players in the history of the sport with four championship rings.</p>
<p>For all their heroics, however, the underclassmen were big for Penn State as well. Freshman Deja McClendon had 16 kills in the match and fellow frosh Ariel Scott added seven. Katie Slay led Penn State with six blocks, and spiked home the championship winning kill in the third set.</p>
<p>Coach Russ Rose now stands alone with five national championships, the most by any coach in the history of the sport.</p>
https://pittsburgh.sbnation.com/penn-st-nittany-lions/2010/12/18/1884840/penn-state-volleyball-claims-fourth-straight-titleFTG18552010-12-18T21:58:25-05:002010-12-18T21:58:25-05:00Penn State Volleyball Leads Cal 2-0 At The Break
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<p>Behind big efforts from underclassmen Katie Slay and Deja McClendon, Penn State holds a 2-0 lead in the NCAA Championship game against California.</p>
<p>Penn State cruised 25-20 in the first set as McClendon and senior Blair Brown hit well on the outside. The Lions also got big blocks inside from freshman Slay.</p>
<p>In the second set, both teams took turns holding the lead, and Penn State needed a big late set comeback to eventually win 27-25.</p>
<p>McClendon leads Penn State with 12 kills on .321 hitting. Brown has 10 kills on .350 hitting and senior Arielle Wilson has 8 kills on .375 hitting. Sophomore setter Kristin Carpenter has 31 assists early on and Slay leads Penn State with six key blocks.</p>
<p>The Lions are looking for their fourth straight national title in the third set. A victory would also give the Nittany Lions their fifth overall national championship in program history.</p>
https://pittsburgh.sbnation.com/penn-st-nittany-lions/2010/12/18/1884733/penn-state-volleyball-leads-cal-2-0-at-the-breakFTG18552010-12-18T14:55:43-05:002010-12-18T14:55:43-05:00Penn State Volleyball Q and A: California Golden Blogs
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<p>With Penn State facing Cal in the NCAA Championship game tonight, Cal blogger Avinash from California Golden Blogs offered to do a question and answer session with us over at Black Shoe Diaries about this Golden Bear squad and what to look out for. He does a great job breaking down the team. Here's an excerpt:</p>
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<p><span><span><b>2. Who's the player to watch out for?</b><br><br>Tarah Murrey. Her improvement from last year to this year is incredible; <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/story?columnist=voepel_mechelle&id=5925489">she really dedicated herself to become a student of the game, and is now very hard to stop offensively</a>. Her attack percentage is one of the best in the country. When Lloyd sets her up properly, she's unstoppable. When Lloyd doesn't give her the greatest pass, Murrey still can make it look pretty impressive with an array of cross court hits, down-the-line moves, soft touches, back-line kills, etc. She's averaging 5.23 kills per set (3rd in the country) and 5.81 points per set (6th in the country). I honestly think she'll be competing for a National Team spot if she continues her progression.<br><br>Her and Lloyd have really set the tone for this team. Lloyd is the leader, but Murrey is the firebrand. Without her offensive efficiency and an underrated defensive game, Cal would not have made it this far.</span></span></p>
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<p>For more, read the rest of the post <a target="_blank" href="http://www.blackshoediaries.com/2010/12/18/1884015/penn-state-volleyball-q-and-a-california-golden-blogs">here</a>.</p>
https://pittsburgh.sbnation.com/penn-st-nittany-lions/2010/12/18/1884048/penn-state-volleyball-q-and-a-california-golden-blogsFTG18552010-12-18T11:13:32-05:002010-12-18T11:13:32-05:00Penn State Vs. Cal Women's Volleyball National Championship Streaming Audio
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<p>For those of you who can't watch the game on ESPN2, but can get to a computer by 8:30, GoPSUSports.com has your Penn State women’s volleyball fix. The match will be streaming live <a href="http://www.gopsusports.com/allaccess/?media=217997" target="new">via GoPSUSports All Access page</a>.</p>
<p>Also, Russ Rose’s pre-national championship press conference was held yesterday. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7BQRy7vDug&feature=channel" target="new">Watch here</a> for more news and notes from the man himself.</p>
https://pittsburgh.sbnation.com/penn-st-nittany-lions/2010/12/18/1883736/penn-state-vs-cal-womens-volleyball-national-championship-streaming-audio-ncaaJunny Junny2010-12-18T00:07:44-05:002010-12-18T00:07:44-05:00Penn State Vs. Cal Women's Volleyball: Interview With DigNittanyVolleyball
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<p><b>SBN Pittsburgh</b>: We've asked blogger DigNittany, of <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dignittanyvolleyball.com/">DigNittanyVolleyball</a>, a website for fans of Penn State Women's Volleyball, to give us its take on Saturday night's NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship Match. So, DigNittany, what should fans be looking for?</p>
<p><b>DigNittany</b>: Thanks for having us on. By way of disclaimer, we're about as far from being volleyball experts as you can get -- we try to bring in people who are experts for real analysis on our blog, but we obviously are big fans, so we'll give you the fans-eye view.</p>
<p>It should be a great match, with Cal coming in about as hot as you can get -- they won every single set they've played so far in the NCAA Tournament. Penn State is playing very well too. To our non-expert eyes, they played their best match of the season against Texas. As we noted on DigNittanyVolleyball.com, a key question before the Texas match was whether the high-pressure atmosphere of the NCAA Semi-Finals would affect the play of Penn State freshmen 6-foot-1 OH Deja McClendon, 6-foot-5 OH Ariel Scott, 6-foot-6 MH Katie Slay, or 5-foot-6 DS Ali Longo, but it didn't seem to phase them at all. If anything, McClendon, Scott, and Slay seemed to be energized by it, as they combined for 24 of Penn State's 45 kills and 12 of 19 blocks. Deja, who is simply amazing, had 11 kills on 15 swings, no errors, and hit .733 (her season's best attack %).</p>
<p><b>SBN Pittsburgh</b>: More than 40 games in this season have transpired. Does the team have one more win in them?</p>
<p><b>DigNittany</b>: We don't think it's fair to expect them to replicate their national semifinals performance (for one thing, we think Cal is a better team than Texas), but we would wouldn't be surprised if they have solid matches against Golden Bears.</p>
<p>The Penn State seniors have more than carried their share of the load. Against Texas, 6-foot-5 Sr. Opp. Blair Brown (AVCA First Team All-American) led the team with 12 kills (.235 attack %), with 6-foot-3 Sr. Arielle Wilson (AVCA First Team All American) totaling six kills (.465 attack %) and three blocks. 5-foot-9 Sr. L Alyssa D’Errico recorded a match-high 11 digs, while 5-foot-1 Sr. DS Cathy Quilico added six digs.</p>
<p>Penn State Head Coach Russ Rose said Friday that Cal is "a great representative of a strong conference." He noted that Penn State (which has played Cal in the NCAA tournament each of the past three years) is going to have its "hands full," and called this year's Cal team "the best Cal team that we’ve played." He singled out 5-foot-11 Sr. setter Carli Lloyd and 6-foot-3 Jr. Outside Hitter Tarah Murrey -- both First Team AVCA All-Americans -- as two Cal players who could be stealing votes from each other for the National Player of the Year, and who will be a tough challenge for Penn State. Coach Rose also noted Cal's great system and defensive package that have been caused problems for alot of teams. Some observers believe that the ability of Tarah Murrey to adjust to the Penn State block (if matched up against Blair Brown/Katie Slay) will be a significant factor in how the match plays out.</p>
<p><b>SBN Pittsburgh</b>: There has been alot of pre-match focus on the comparison between the setters for the two teams: Cal's Carli Lloyd, the consensus All-American, and Penn State's Kristin Carpenter. How does PSU fare?</p>
<p><b>DigNittany</b>: During the pre-season, Carpenter wasn't expected to be Penn State's setter -- she was slotted for duty as a defensive specialist/libero, but she stepped in when other options weren't working out, and has kept on improving as the season progressed. One observor put it this way: "[Rose] doesn't look at her as a setter as much as a great player and competitor who is setting." Listening to the announcers during the Texas match, she clearly has earned the respect of many people in the volleyball world.</p>
<p>But, having said that, Cal's Carli Lloyd clearly is the better setter, so Cal has the advantage there. As another observer put it, if this comes down to which team has the best setter, Penn State is in trouble. But Kristin Carpenter doesn't have to be the best setter for Penn State to win -- she just has to be good enough.</p>
<p><b>SBN Pittsburgh</b>: OK, enough analysis. Give us the final prediction...</p>
<p><b>DigNittany</b>: Well, Cal was ranked No. 4 in the November 29th AVCA poll, and Penn State was ranked No. 8. But Penn State was seeded No. 4 in the Tournament, whereas Cal was seeded No. 7. We think it's almost a toss-up, but we think the gravitational pull of the court is leaning slightly in Cal's direction. So if we were following our head, we'd say Cal wins in 4 or 5. But we're fans, so we'll ignore our head, and, when adding Coach Russ Rose (who we think is the best coach in Division 1 Women's Volleyball) into the calculation, we're going to go with Penn State, in an Instant Classic, five-set victory. We'll be the ones in the intensive care recovery room, with oxygen tubes and all sorts of wires going everywhere, but a happy look on our faces.</p>
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<p>There you have it, folks, Penn State in five sets. We at SBN Pittsburgh certainly hope DigNittany is right! Although, after last year's "Instant Classic, five-set victory" over Texas, we're not sure how much more we can take. Here's to hoping the girls make it a little easier on the fans, winning easily in three quick sets.</p>
<p>Thanks once again to DigNittany of <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dignittanyvolleyball.com/">DigNittanyVolleyball.com</a> for giving us their always valuable time and analysis. If you're not familiar with <a target="_blank" href="http://www.dignittanyvolleyball.com/">DigNittanyVolleyball</a>, you should really be reading this site to keep up on all of the latest Penn State women's volleyball news, notes and analysis.</p>
https://pittsburgh.sbnation.com/penn-st-nittany-lions/2010/12/18/1883294/penn-state-vs-cal-womens-volleyball-interview-with-dignittanyvolleyball-ncaa-russ-roseJunny Junny2010-12-17T14:03:18-05:002010-12-17T14:03:18-05:00Penn State Women's Volleyball Set For Run At Fourth Straight National Championship, Will Face Cal Bears Saturday Night
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<p>The Penn State women's volleyball team has somehow found a way to win this season, especially at the times it mattered most. It entered the season on a winning streak that no team in the history of collegiate sports had ever seen, and are now one win away from an historic fourth straight national championship.</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://pittsburgh.sbnation.com/penn-st-nittany-lions/2010/12/16/1880060/penn-state-womens-volleyball-texas-final-four-tonight-ncaa-2009-championship-rematch-2010">As noted</a>, Penn State was set to take on Texas in the national semifinals. This was a rematch of last year's unbelievable finals where Megan Hodge and Alisha Glass came from two sets down to beat Destinee Hooker and the <a class="sbn-auto-link" href="http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-football/teams/texas-longhorns">Texas Longhorns</a> in five sets. All three of those players have since moved on, and this Texas team was no match for Penn State, with the Lions winning in straight sets.</p>
<p>Now the ultimate stage is set, as Penn State will face the California Bears in the finals. This will be Penn State's fourth straight finals appearance, having won the previous three, while Cal has never played in a women's volleyball national championship. Saturday's match will be broadcast live on ESPN2 from Kansas City. Coverage begins at 8:30!</p>
<p>Stay tuned to SB Nation Pittsburgh, as later on this evening we will have an interview with DigNittany.com, the most in-depth Penn State women's volleyball blog on the internet.</p>
https://pittsburgh.sbnation.com/2010/12/17/2326521/penn-state-womens-volleyball-set-for-run-at-fourth-straight-nationalJunny Junny