Posted at 6:44 p.m., Saturday, December 15, 2007
Penn State tops Stanford for NCAA volleyball crown
By JANIE McCAULEY
Associated Press
The scrappy Nittany Lions even found a way to stun top-seeded Stanford tonight, getting 26 kills from Megan Hodge and 19 from Nicole Fawcett against the very same school they beat for their first title in 1999.
A day before her 21st birthday, Fawcett served on match point and Penn State capped its 26th straight victory on another powerful kill by MVP Hodge, winning 30-25, 30-26, 23-30, 19-30, 15-8 exactly three months to the day after losing a five-game thriller to the Cardinal — the last defeat for the Nittany Lions.
It was a classic for volleyball fans considering each side had three first-team All-Americans. Trailing 4-3 in the decisive game, Penn State (34-2) scored six straight points and got two kills each from Christa Harmotto and Alisha Glass for a 10-4 lead and Stanford called timeout.
National and Pac-10 player of the year Faluke Akinradewo and Pac-10 freshman of the year Alix Klineman each had 18 kills for the Cardinal (32-3), who tried to become the first team since UCLA in 1991 to rally from a two-game deficit to win.
Stanford fell short for the second straight season, missing a chance to give senior starters Bryn Kehoe and Franci Gerard another title after winning when they were freshmen in 2004.
Penn State coach Russ Rose had no intention of shutting down Stanford's stars. What his team did was keep points alive by chasing down tough loose balls and hitting the floor for athletic digs to end Stanford's 12-game winning streak and deny the Pac-10 its sixth title in seven years.
