There aren’t many days that ESPN takes a break from its seemingly nonstop coverage of LeBron James and the Dallas Cowboys to air some NCAA volleyball.
This past Saturday, Dec. 21, following some college basketball and in the midst of the start of the bowl game season, ESPN2 had coverage of the NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship between No. 2 Penn State University and No. 12 Wisconsin University. The two teams didn’t disappoint the national audience.
In a nail-biter from start to finish, the Nittany Lions defeated the Badgers for the third time this year, this time in four sets. But, what coach Russ Rose and Penn State accomplished is much more than just a national title.
They revived a dynasty.
With the win, Penn State ties Stanford University for first all-time with six volleyball national titles. The catch? This is the Nittany Lions’ fifth title in the last seven years.
The unbelievable run began with a national championship in 2007, when Penn State went 34-2 overall and avenged a loss to Stanford in the final game. The year that ensued, though, shattered national records.
In 2008, the Nittany Lions did not lose a set until dropping two in a five-set thriller against University of Nebraska in the national semifinals. Penn State swept Stanford in the championship game, and Megan Hodge won her second consecutive Most Outstanding Player award as well.
But, the program was just getting started.
Penn State again won the national title in 2009, going undefeated once again as well. After trailing, 2-0, in the championship against University of Texas, the Nittany Lions stormed back to win their third straight crown. 2010 was another banner year for Penn State, despite having its NCAA-record 109 match win streak snapped early in the year against Stanford.
On that 2010 team was a six-foot, one-inch freshman outside hitter named Deja McClendon. A native of Louisville, Ky., McClendon hammered down 16 kills and hit for a .250 clip in the national championship game against University of California. After she was named Most Outstanding Player of the championship, it seemed destined at the time that McClendon would carry the Nittany Lions back to this stage in each of the next four years, just as Hodge did before her.
It took McClendon and Penn State three years before they would again be playing for all the marbles. The Nittany Lions lost in a regional semifinal in 2011, and fell in the national semifinals in 2012. For her senior year, though, McClendon was determined to end her career on the same note it began with.
The Nittany Lions went 28-2 in the regular season, winning their 10th Big Ten title in 11 years, and earned the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. In the regional finals, that same old foe stood in the way of another trip to the Final Four – the Stanford Cardinal.
Penn State prevailed in five sets over Stanford. The Nittany Lions then dominated University of Washington, which was playing a virtual home game in Seattle, to advance to the national title.
Penn State won the first set, 25-19, over Wisconsin thanks to some stellar play by junior setter Micha Hancock. Along with spreading the ball around to the powerful hitters, Hancock’s strong serving helped the Nittany Lions build a few big runs to stretch their lead.
The second set was tight at the end, and Penn State was able to steal it thanks to two late Wisconsin service errors. The Badgers, though, were not fazed. After the intermission, they stepped up their defensive approaches at the net and were able to minimize the damage done by the Penn State attack. The Badgers forced a fourth set with a 25-20 triumph.
It appeared Wisconsin would take the fourth set as well, as it held a 23-20 lead. But a service error on the next point snowballed into much more, as Penn State reeled off five consecutive points to win the title.
Serving on those final Nittany Lion points was once again Hancock, who had two aces in the stretch. The lefty from Edmond, Okla., was voted Most Outstanding Player of the tournament. She was hardly off the radar before the match, though. Back in her freshman year, a serve of hers nailed a University of Minnesota player in the face.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hll3sjnVapo
McClendon had accomplished her goal, one that she shared with so many other members of the program in Happy Valley. Five titles in seven years is something you don’t see very often. The most comparable example in recent Division I history is the UCLA men’s basketball program that won seven consecutive national titles from 1967-1973 while also winning nine in 11 years during that same stretch.
The Nittany Lions are losing five seniors, including McClendon and six-foot, six-inch middle hitter Katie Slay who hit .481 in the national championship. But, Penn State returns half of its starting lineup for next year.
Coach Rose, who now has 1,092 wins in 35 seasons at Penn State, has proven that he can continue to bring the nation’s best volleyball talent to State College in the heart of Pennsylvania. Penn State’s roster has girls from 11 different states and Puerto Rico, stretching from New Jersey to Texas to California.
Having both Wisconsin and Penn State in the national championship shows that the Big Ten may be the nation’s best volleyball conference. Penn State, though, has never finished below third place in the league since joining in 1991.
It’s the ending of a spectacular career for McClendon, among others. But, it’s just one more chapter of the dynasty that is Penn State volleyball.