PSU stopped in semis
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Mikaela Foecke had 19 kills, Annika Albrecht and Briana Holman had 13 apiece and Nebraska fought off match point in the fourth set to beat Penn State in a five-set thriller in the NCAA volleyball semifinals on Thursday night.
“I’m disappointed in the outcome,” PSU coach Russ Rose said. “I’m not disappointed in the players or the university that I work at.
“I thought the kids played hard,” Rose added. “And other than serving and some passing issues, I thought we were competing well in a tough environment.”
The fifth-seeded Huskers will play the winner of Stanford-Florida for the title Saturday night.
The Huskers took advantage of a series of service mistakes by the top-seeded Nittany Lions to beat their Big Ten rivals for the seventh straight time. They also advanced to their eighth title match, where they will try to secure their fifth national championship.
Nebraska won the opening set 25-18 before dropping the next two, and then rallied to win the fourth 28-26 and force a deciding set. The Huskers took it 15-11 to advance to the finals.
“They’re a good team,” PSU’s Simone Lee said, “and we scouted them pretty well. I think it was just execution on all of our parts.”
Penn State had an opportunity to win in the fourth set, taking a 6-1 lead and having a match point, but was unable to finish it off as Nebraska scored three straight points to win the set.
“It’s just a shift in momentum, and it’s something we talk about a lot, especially in our gym, is being able to hold on to momentum and not let it slip away,” PSU’s Haleigh Washington said.
“When you have those moments you feel that momentum shift. But in that fifth set we came out and had an early lead. We were leading up until 7.”
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