Centre Daily Times
http://www.centredaily.com/sports/colleges/penn_state/volleyball/
20 December 2009
TAMPA, Fla. — It turned out to be destiny, not Destinee.
After withstanding an early onslaught from Texas’ stellar senior Destinee Hooker, the Penn State women’s volleyball team pulled off a rally for the ages.
The result was a third straight national championship and the completion of two spectacular careers.
For the CDT/Brian Blanco
Penn State’s Megan Hodge Spikes the ball past Texas’ Michelle Kocher (4) for one of her 21 kills in the Nittany Lions’ 3-2 win over the Longhorns on Saturday.
With one final huge swing from senior Megan Hodge, drilling the ball into the floor, the Nittany Lions made history by rallying from two sets down in the national championship match Saturday night at the St. Petersburg Times Forum
“We had to fight,” Hodge said. “It was the hardest fight I think we’ve ever had in our lives.”
Behind 21 kills from Hodge and 13 kills each from Darcy Dorton and Blair Brown, Penn State (38-0) finished off the Longhorns 22-25, 20-25, 25-23, 25-21, 15-13.
“This is the stage you want to be on, that great players want to play on,” said Hodge, who also had 13 digs and was a freshman the last time Penn State rallied from 2-0 down — also against Texas. “But I never in my wildest dreams thought this would happen.”
The victory added even more milestones to the steamer trunk of history the Nittany Lions will be hauling back from Tampa. They became the first team to win three straight titles after nine other programs had failed on their third try, the first to win two straight with perfect seasons, the third team to rally from two sets down in the championship game, extended their NCAA record to 102 straight
match victories and gave head coach Russ Rose his fourth career coaching title, joining Stanford coaches Don Shaw and John Dunning as the only mentors to do so.
“The seniors left an incredible mark on the program and at the beginning of the year I told them they would be judged by the end of the season, not to their career to that point in time,” Rose said. “I kept urging (Alisha Glass and Hodge) to understand that they could still do it, they could still do it.”
All of that was almost history thanks to Hooker, the NCAA high jump champion who was making life miserable for the Nittany Lions. The tournament’s Most Outstanding Player finished with a career-high 34 kills to go on a .316 hitting night and added 17 digs as her team was seeking its first title since 1988.
“She just kept going hard the whole time,” Rose said. “The scouting report indicated she was going to get hers and we needed to limit some of the other people so they didn’t have big nights as well.”
For the CDT/Brian Blanco
Texas’ Destinee Hooker (21) goes through Penn State’s Alisha Glass (6) and Arielle Wilson for one of her 34 kills in the the Nittany Lions’ 3-2 win.
While offense gets the highlights, it was defense that played the biggest role in the comeback. The Nittany Lions began to track Hooker a little better in the final three sets and finished with a 14-12 edge in blocks, led by nine from Fatima Balza and five each from Hodge and Arielle Wilson.
Then there was the backrow of Alyssa D’Errico and Cathy Quilico, who were covering the court like a canvas. D’Errico led with 22 digs and Quilico had 12, and each had a pair of aces. Brown added 14 digs and Glass had 12 to go with her 53 assists as she and Hodge finished their careers with a 142-5 record — the best four-year mark in Division I history.
Rachael Adams added 11 kills for the Longhorns (29-2), Julianne Faucette had 10 and Ashley Engle had 36 assists and 14 digs. Libero Heather Kisner also was mopping the court with 26 digs.
The first set was littered with scoring runs, and the Nittany Lions appeared headed for a 1-0 lead when it ripped off five straight points and 7 out of 9 for a 22-19 lead. They were cooled by a timeout, however, as the team suddenly had some trouble with its serve-receive and the Longhorns pounded down the final six points. Engle had a key ace, Texas built a triple block on a backrow spike by Hodge and Hooker put down the final point after Kisner made a diving dig of another Hodge attack.
It got even worse for Penn State in the second set. Hooker pounded down 11 of the team’s 17 kills in the set, including a run of 8 out of 10 points finished with her terminations. Penn State had just 10 put-aways as a team in the frame.
“We were playing pretty perfect,” Engle said. “I think we stunned Penn State a little bit.”
It marked the first time the Nittany Lions had dropped the first two sets of a match since a 3-0 sweep by Nebraska on Sept. 2, 2007. Rose did say he reminded his team of the last comeback from a 2-0 deficit, at Texas in the eighth match of the careers of Hodge and Glass, during the break between sets.
Penn State finally found its offense in the third set, building an early 11-5 lead as Hodge and Brown finally started putting the ball away with more frequency and their serving put pressure on the Longhorns.
The Nittany Lions built an early five-point lead and looked ready to cruise in the fourth, but Hooker and Adams got hot as the Longhorns got on a 7-1 run. Penn State clung to a lead again late, with D’Errico and Quilico each making spectacular diving digs to keep the ball alive and Hodge finally put the ball away with her seventh kill of the frame.
The teams then traded blows through the fifth, though Penn State never led until Wilson put away a Longhorn overpass as the team took five of the last seven points, setting up Hodge’s 2,142nd and final career kill.
“I blacked out,” Hodge said. “I was asking everybody after the match, ‘What happened on the last play?’ It’s unbelievable.”
Intangibles made the difference
By Andrew J. Cassavell
The Daily Collegian Staff Writer
December 20, 2009
http://www.collegian.psu.edu/
This one was different.In 101 straight matches, the Penn State women's volleyball team was the better squad on the court. The Nittany Lions weren't on Saturday.
In 101 straight matches they had the best player on the court. They didn't on Saturday.
In 101 straight matches they were in control from start to finish. They weren't on Saturday.
But trailing two sets to none and going up against one of the greatest single-match performances of all-time by Texas' Destinee Hooker, the Nittany Lions wanted one thing by the end of the night: to be national champions.
On Saturday they were, one more time.
In one of the greatest comebacks in the history of collegiate athletics, the Penn State women's volleyball team rallied from two sets to none down to earn its 102nd straight win and a third consecutive national title - the first team to do so in the history of NCAA women's volleyball.
Mark it up as 101 straight wins on talent. One-straight win on desire, emotion and maybe even a bit of fortune. Head coach Russ Rose wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
"When it gets to a fifth game anything can happen," Rose said in his post-match press conference. "This is one of those examples where you don't win the statistics war, but we found a way to win at critical times."
For 37 matches this season the Lions had won the statistics war and had proven to be simply the better team, in the early stages of the first set.
But heading into Saturday's title bout, they knew No. 38 wouldn't come so easily.
Which is why the match wasn't about AVCA player of the year Megan Hodge procuring a powerful kill to clinch the win, or three-time All-American Alisha Glass providing the near-perfect set to Hodge to even the match at two sets apiece. Destinee Hooker and Ashley Engle could have done that for Texas.
It was about freshman Darcy Dorton scoring and then screaming at the top of her lungs in the second set despite trailing by seven. The point meant nothing. The pure passion and the message sent - everything.
It was about junior libero Alyssa D'Errico diving to the floor three times in one forgotten point in the fourth set. The Lions would lose it when her third diving attempt at a pancake fell short.
But in the point D'Errico let the Horns know Penn State wasn't going to lose the match. Texas would have to win it.
It was about Blair Brown, who struggled to stop Hooker early in the match and had trouble serving, being able to compose herself after each error and respond --13 times. The junior middle blocker finished with 13 kills - on an off night.
Had it been best-of-seven sets, it would have gone seven. Best of nine?
Well, you get the picture.
Maybe the Lions weren't the better team on Saturday. There was no better team.
Just a deserving champion and a valiant, yet unfulfilled runner-up.
Because of effort like D'Errico's, emotion like Dorton's and, yes, also the talent of a team with four first-team All-Americans - on Saturday night Penn State was that deserving champion.
Again.
More Women's Volleyball News
Column: Underclassmen lead team to title
PSU comes from behind to claim third-straight title
Hooker, Horns stand in way of title
Hodge honored as player of the year
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