Anyone hoping to witness an aggressively contested semi-final of the NCAA Division Women’s Volleyball Championship in Kansas must have been left sorely disappointed.
The Texas Longhorns were no match for the Penn State Nittany Lions who dominated the game all through. As the 12,000 spectators watched on, the Lions made a three set clean sweep (25-13, 25-13, 25-22), winning the Final Four and moving on to the Championship
match which is going to take place at the Sprint Centre.
Even though it is going to be the fourth time straight that Penn State is going to play the Championship match, they are not becoming over-confident. Senior Libero Alyssa D’Errico says the team will celebrate only when they achieve their goal, “It’s a great
feeling, but we’re not celebrating yet. We have one more match to play. Our goals are the same; the program’s goals are the same. It’s about tradition and upholding that tradition and getting to a final is not our goal. Our goal is to win.”
This determination was well seen all through the Final Four match, where the Lions did not give the Longhorns any room to breathe. As effortless as the play seemed for Penn State, it proved to be equally stressful for the Longhorns. This defeat came to the
Texas team after 19 straight matches. However, the Penn State win was decisive.
Superior play by the Lions did not let the momentum build for the Longhorns. Superb attacking skills of Penn State did not let Texas get into form, restricting the Longhorns to only 48 points and setting a record for allowing the fewest points to any team
in the Final Four.
Senior outside hitter of the Longhorns, Juliann Faucette confessed to the Lions being the better team of the two, “Well, they were picking up everything. They have a really good libero over there, senior libero, and she was controlling the back court. It
was hard for us to get a rhythm putting things down and they were picking everything up including the tips and just really good on their feet, and so it was hard to come back from that because we weren't responding with our defence until the third game and
it was too late.”
The Nittany Lions are up against the Golden Bears, who also made a three set clean sweep, defeating the USC in the second semi-final.
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