"Penn State is an amazing team" Cal Bear junior Carli Lloyd

Gainesville, Fla – The undefeated Penn State Nittany Lions (35-0, 20-0) squared off against the Cal Bears (21-10, 11-7) on Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009 in the NCAA D1 Women’s Regional Volleyball Finals. The winner would advance to the Final Four in Tampa, Florida next weekend.

Penn State would win 3-0, to take their 100^th consecutive match and will play next weekend in their quest for their third consecutive national championship.

Head Coach Russ Rose's Lions were in familiar territory playing in a regional final for the fourth year in a row. Cal's Coach Rich Feller, also no stranger to regional play, had his Bears playing in their fourth straight post season. In the previous two years, Penn State was the team that knocked the Cal Bears out of the tournament.

“I thought it was another tough match against a great opponent,” Penn State head coach Russ Rose said. “I feel bad we keep playing Cal every year, but I recognize that when you get near the end of a tournament, the best teams are going to play one another. We feel relieved to get a victory, because they are a great team. They are a great offensive team, play hard all the time and are well-coached.”

An epic rally with the score tied 2-2 in the first set foretold what sort of effort would be required to advance to the final four and appeared to ignite Penn State. They went on a scoring run that culminated with an ace from junior middle blocker Blair Brown not long after a kill from junior Arielle Wilson to put Penn Stet up 13-10. Another windmill kill from Brown and they stretched the score to 15-11.

But Call stayed aggressive and staged a comeback cutting the score to 19-19 until Penn State's freshman phenom, Darcy Dorton, thundered home two winners back to back to take a 21-17 lead heading into a media timeout. The short break did Cal no favors and the Nittany Lions closed them out quickly to take the first set, 25-18.

Penn State won the first point in game two, but Cal would go up 4-1 before Penn State scored again. The teams traded kills over the next few minutes but the Nittany Lions would take an 11-8 lead on the strength of senior Megan Hodge who recorded two monster kills in that span of play, as well as two blocks. Hodge would be named MVP of this Gainesville Regional later in the day.

PSU 's dominance at the net continued as they had an uncanny knack for finding holes in the Cal defense as they built the lead to 15-11. But a net serve by Cal junior Carli Lloyd was a momentum killer as Penn State took a 21-16 lead that they would not relinquish en route to a 25-17 second set win.

The teams emerged from the break with Penn State looking like they expected to make quick work and put away the Bears in three, as had been their pattern as they marched through the tournament.

Cal battled gamely going up 8-6 on the strength of some excellent net play. But as expected, Penn State was not to be denied and charged back to tie at 13 all. A brilliant save at the net by senior Alisha Glass set up Dorton for the kill to give Penn State the lead at 15-14.

With PSU holding a 20-17 lead, Cal emerged from the timeout and took next three points to tie at 20. But the Nittany Lions answered with their own 2-0 run to take a tenuous 22-20 lead.

Cal fought off match point but Penn State took the next point and the Nittany Lions would continue their march toward the championship in Tampa, taking the third set 25-22.

In addition to Penn State’s Hodge being named MVP, the Nittany Lions would also place Blair Brown, Arielle Wilson and Alisha Glass on the All-Region team, along with Hana Cutura from Cal, and Elyse Cusack of the University of Florida.

The top-seeded Nittany Lions will join the University of Hawaii, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Texas next week at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa. The championship game is Saturday, Dec. 19. 

Tags: Penn State Nittany Lions NCAA Volleyball Cal Bears Megan Hodge