I had to follow along on ncaa.com for the most part. After set 3 they switched the teams for the live pbp - highly annoying
WVB National Championship
- Thread starter mcpat
- Start date
Can't believe how they came back after losing set 2, after they lost 10 set points! Unbelievable.
1st ever coached by someone with stage 2 cancer!!!
Great resilience after losing that epic 2nd set. Came out in the 3rd all business. If anything it was Louisville after the 2nd set who kind of ran out of gas.
Congratulations Lady Lions, National Champions!!
The mental toughness of this coach and her team is off the charts. Really easy group to root for this season.
Didn’t wilt like Pitt did on Thursday.
Great run...great season...let's see if Starck can win 4
One of the commentators observed that most teams come out strong but then start to falter a little bit because of tiredness, but not this team. They get stronger the longer the match goes. Just speaks to their toughness and attitude that a lot of youngsters can learn from.
Someone posted video of the match here. It probably won't be up for long. Jess Mruzik was on fire -- which is such a fitting end for the season and for her college career.
Also check out the postgame press conference -- PSU stayed loose and really wasn't bothered by the loss of the epic 2nd set. They ended up in a jam at the end with a bunch of back row players forced to play at the net because they had run out of substitutions. Said they were laughing about it in the locker room and that kept them loose. Quinn Menger had a good comment -- said they actually appreciated Louisville's play climbing back into the 2nd set and battling to win it, but they were confident PSU could play well too and steal one back.
If you watch the match, if anything it was Louisville that ran out of gas after the 2nd set. PSU just shifted to a higher gear and just had too much firepower for them. If Louisville hadn't lost their star middle to an injury in the semifinal match, it might have been a different match.
Louisville has great frontcourt players but I thought PSU's backcourt and floor defense was better, and of course Izzy Starck was setting so brilliantly -- that was also a big part of PSU's success. The quality of play was extremely high at times. Volleyball was amazing to watch 15 years ago when PSU was in the midst of its dynasty, but the level of skill and intensity is higher now, and there are way more high-level programs -- Louisville and Pitt being prime examples.
Also check out the postgame press conference -- PSU stayed loose and really wasn't bothered by the loss of the epic 2nd set. They ended up in a jam at the end with a bunch of back row players forced to play at the net because they had run out of substitutions. Said they were laughing about it in the locker room and that kept them loose. Quinn Menger had a good comment -- said they actually appreciated Louisville's play climbing back into the 2nd set and battling to win it, but they were confident PSU could play well too and steal one back.
If you watch the match, if anything it was Louisville that ran out of gas after the 2nd set. PSU just shifted to a higher gear and just had too much firepower for them. If Louisville hadn't lost their star middle to an injury in the semifinal match, it might have been a different match.
Louisville has great frontcourt players but I thought PSU's backcourt and floor defense was better, and of course Izzy Starck was setting so brilliantly -- that was also a big part of PSU's success. The quality of play was extremely high at times. Volleyball was amazing to watch 15 years ago when PSU was in the midst of its dynasty, but the level of skill and intensity is higher now, and there are way more high-level programs -- Louisville and Pitt being prime examples.
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The match is up on ESPN app. I'll catch it some time this week. Lots of great events this weekend.
This is a great win for the WVB program and Penn State overall! I am so happy for the players and most of all for our coach, Katie Schumacher-Cawley, and her family. Battling cancer is terrible and to coach a team to a national championship while undergoing chemo treatments is incredibly courageous.
WE ARE PENN STATE!!
WE ARE PENN STATE!!
I like how Katie always gives a shout out to Russ Rose in her post match comments. She is all class. Good luck to her in the cancer battle. I'm excited to see how the team evolves going forward.
I believe she has some quality freshmen coming in next year including Patrick Ewengs daughter.
I never expected PSU to win the national championship. They showed they were a good team early in the year by sweeping Louisville and coming back to beat Kentucky but they were totally dominated by Pitt and Wisconsin. A lot of their other wins didn't come as easily as they did for Nebraska. I expected them to be good but maybe 4th nationally instead of first.
Beating Nebraska at home to grab a share of the BiG title was a bit of a surprise. Beat them again on a neutral court after being down 0-2 was an even bigger surprise. Then Louisville upset Pitt which opened the door for the ladies to win the whole thing.
I don't think this team was a good as Rose's teams with players like Fawcett, Hodge, Glass, Wilson, and Hancock but the thing about this team is that they never quit.
Beating Nebraska at home to grab a share of the BiG title was a bit of a surprise. Beat them again on a neutral court after being down 0-2 was an even bigger surprise. Then Louisville upset Pitt which opened the door for the ladies to win the whole thing.
I don't think this team was a good as Rose's teams with players like Fawcett, Hodge, Glass, Wilson, and Hancock but the thing about this team is that they never quit.
Hard to compare across eras because the sport is changing. Obviously the Fawcett/Hodge/Glass/Wilson/D'errico/Blair Brown team was the greatest of its era. Some years PSU was just head and shoulders above the 2nd place team. But the game is so different now, the play is so much better. The things PSU did that no one else did, all the top teams do now. Any of the final four teams and an extra couple from the quarterfinals would compete really well with the PSU dynasty teams.
I really thought Louisville, especially down their best player, would be a letdown from Nebraska but they were really, really good. They could easily have won the first two sets. PSU was just a tiny bit better and deeper and Louisville wore down as the match went on. Their blocking and floor defense was just amazing -- it was so hard to get balls to the floor -- and PSU had 4 really good offensive options. Dumps and tips are almost useless at this level of floor defense. In a couple of games it came down to some elite serving from PSU. Falduto, the freshman, had a drop serve that was dropping like a knuckleball and that was key to a couple of games. Mruzik's and Izzy Starck's serves were also really effective.
Anyway, PSU has elite frontline talent coming in to pair with their already elite backcourt talent and setting. Grimes and Falduto are wonderful. But it will be a dogfight again next year because Pitt has incredible talent, Nebraska and Wisconsin are so strong and the ACC is becoming the 2nd best volleyball conference. And PSU isn't going to sneak up on anybody next year. It will be harder for them to play loose and fun like they did this year. They will have to carry the weight of defending champion and that is a heavy weight.
