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2008 NCAA National Champions No. 1 Penn State Tops No. 2 Stanford for Second Straight NCAA Title OMAHA, Neb., Dec. 20, 2008 – e top-ranked Penn State women’s volleyball team capped a record-setting season for its second consecutive NCAA title Saturday night with a three-game win over No. 2 Stanford (25-20, 26-24, 25-23) at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Neb. e Nittany Lions finish the 2008 campaign with a perfect 38-0 record, only the fourth team ever in Division I women’s volleyball history to finish the season with an unblemished slate. "I don't think it was the prettiest match to determine the national championship, but it was a match that was played very hard by both teams," said Penn State head coach Russ Rose, the 2008 AVCA National Coach of the Year. "I thought we hung in there defensively and gave ourselves opportunities for a chance for Megan to take big swings at the end. I thought it was a group effort in a lot of areas. It certainly wasn't a match that had the same energy from the match a couple of nights ago. at one had the significance to get us here. Tonight's has special significance, especially for the seniors." Stanford took the 3-0 lead to start the match, but a Harmotto and Brownblock along with two Harmotto kills helped pull Penn State within two at 6-4. e Nittany Lions trailed for much of the game, but forced two Stanford timeouts to steal the momentum. PSU went on to win the game, 25-20, and senior Christa Harmotto led the way with five kills and two blocks . Penn State jumped out to the early lead in game two and held on to take a 2-0 lead in the match. Penn State had a 12-9 advantage midway through the frame, but a Stanford kill and block again trimmed the Lion lead to one at 12-11. e squads traded points before a Cardinal kill and block put Stanford up 14-13. Penn State kills from Blair Brown and Megan Hodge put the Lions ahead 15-14 heading into the television timeout. Penn State maintained the lead for the remainder of the set, but Stanford didn’t let the Lions go unchallenged. A Stanford kill and a Lion attack error tied the score 2424 before kills from Nicole Fawcett and Hodge gave Penn State the game, 26-24. A monster Harmotto and Brown block gave the Nittany Lions the 3-1 lead in the third game, but Stanford tied the game at 3-3. e Lions controlled the set until Stanford recorded three kills to pull within two at 23-21 forxing a Penn State timeout. Out of the break, the Cardinals recorded another kill trimming the lead to one, 23-22, but Hodge responded with a crosscourt kill that clipped the line to make it 24-22. Stanford recorded a kill before a Fawcett kill off the block ended the game, 25-23 giving the Nittany Lions earned their third NCAA title.
102 PENN STATE 2010-2011 WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL
Penn State becomes just the sixth team in history to win back-to-back NCAA Championships, joining Hawaii (1982-83), Pacific (1985-86), UCLA (1990-91), Stanford (1996-97) and USC (2002-03).e Nittany Lion volleyball programs also become only the third school to have its men’s and women’s programs capture their respective championships in the same calendar year, as the Penn State men captured their championship in May. Penn State joins UCLA (1984) and Stanford (1997) as the only programs in history to accomplish the feat. Stanford (1996-97) and Penn State (2007-08) are the only two to win both titles in the same academic year. e match featured nine 2008 AVCA All-Americans, with Penn State’s Fawcett, Alisha Glass, Harmotto and Hodge and Stanford’s Alex Klineman, Cynthia Barboza and Foluke Akinradewo earning First Team honors and Lions Brown and Arielle Wilson picking up Second Team accolades. e contest also showcased the last two AVCA National Players of the Year in Fawcett (2008) and Akinradewo (2007). Penn State finished the season with a 114-2 individual game record and pushed its current NCAA-record match winning streak to 64 dating back to a five-game loss to 2008 NCAA runnerup Stanford on Sept. 15, 2007.
13-TIME BIG TEN CHAMPIONS ‘92, ‘93, ‘96, ‘97, ‘98, ‘99, ‘03, ‘04, ‘05, ‘06, ‘07, ‘08, ‘09