Reverse sweep! Penn State rallies past Nebraska and into NCAA volleyball title match

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky — The year of the reverse sweep.

But it couldn’t happen in the NCAA Division I Volleyball Championship, could it? Even though reverse sweeps seemed to happen this year more than ever.

Well, late Thursday night/Friday morning in the KFC Yum! Center, Penn State rallied for a 23-25, 18-25, 25-23, 28-26, 15-13 victory over Nebraska in a battle of Big Ten teams that will live in the lore of the college game. 

Nebraska, the wire-to-wire favorite, is headed home after a 33-3 season. Penn State (34-2), will go for its first title since 2014 when it plays Louisville in Sunday’s final. Louisville beat Pitt in four sets in a battle of ACC powers in the first semifinal.

It means that for the first time a woman coach will win the NCAA title when Penn State’s Katie Schumacher-Cawley goes up against Louisville’s Dani Busboom Kelly.

Penn State, which has won 11 in a row, which includes a regular-season victory over Nebraska in their only meeting this season, got 26 kills — six in the fifth set — from Jess Mruzik, who hit .300 an had two assists, an ace, 12 digs and a block. Caroline Jurevicious, who transferred from Nebraska, had 20 kills, two digs and four blocks. Camryn Hannah, who had the match-winner, had 16 kills, an ace, five digs and a solo block.

Setter Izzy Starck had two kills, 56 assists, an ace, 11 digs and two blocks. Her team hit .242 for the match, .471 in the fifth set. Gillian Grimes had 25 digs, nine assists and an ace. Penn State had nine kills with one error in 17 attacks to hit .471 in the fifth set.

Nebraska’s Harper Murray, who a year ago after her team lost in the final guaranteed three titles for the Huskers in three years, led her team with 20 kills, and had an assist, three aces, 15 digs and six blocks.

Andi Jackson was almost unstoppable, finishing with 19 kills and two errors in 27 attacks to hit .630. She had five blocks. Her first error came after she had 15 kills with no errors in 17 attempts. Taylor Landfair had 10 kills, two digs and three blocks, and Rebekah Allick had eight kills, hit .353, and had an assist, a dig and 10 blocks, two solo. Merritt Beason had eight kills, an ace, four digs and three blocks.

Setter Bergen Reilly had 55 assists, 15 digs and a block, and Lexi Rodriguez, who became the program’s all-time digs leader, 15 digs and five assists. Nebraska hit .262.

Nebraska does what it does best at the end of the first set. Down 23-21, the Huskers — relying on touches at the net, came out of their timeout by scoring four points in a row. Jackson had a kill, Beason an ace, and then Jackson had two more kills to end it. 

Nebraska hit .273 in the set, which included Jackson getting six kills with no errors in eight attacks. Penn State, which hit .222, got five kills from Hannah on 10 errorless swings.

Penn State hit .098 in the second set with 15 kills and 11 errors in 41 attempts. Nebraska, rather, hit .400 with 12 kills and two errors in 26 swings.

Penn State gutted out a third-set win. Nittany Lions, up 23-20, had to have had first-set flashbacks when Nebraska pulled to 23-22, but went ahead 24-22 on a kill by Jurevicious. Murray had a kill, but Penn State closed it out when Murray hit long and wide left.

In the fourth set, Penn State led 15-12 on a kill by Mruzik, but Nebraska rallied in a big way. After a service error by Mruzik, the Huskers added five more points in a run that included three aces and a kill by Murray.

Penn State called its final timeout down 20-16. Nebraska did the same with a 22-19 lead.

The lead closed to 22-20 when Hannah put down an overpass, but Murray’s attack out of the back row made it 23-20. Hannah got a kill to make it 23-21 and Penn State capped a long rally with a kill by Mruzik to get to 23-22.

Allick’s kill out of the middle gave the Huskers match point. Penn State saved one point on Mruzik’s kill and then tied it when Jurevicious hit off the block. Nebraska challenged the ball was in but the call was confirmed.

Penn State got an ace from Grimes, but Mruzik hit out of bounds and it was 25-25.

Mruzik hit off the block to make it 26-25, but Beason ended a rally with a putback of an over dig. Penn State challenged Nebraska was in the net but there was no net violation and it was 26-26

Penn State forced the fifth on a Mruzik kill and cross-court blast by Hannah.

The fifth set began at 12:18 a.m.

Penn State went up 5-2 on Jackson’s second hitting error of the night, a slide attack that never cleared the net. Nebraska used its first timeout.

Murray got it to 5-3 on roll shot to the middle. Penn State went up 6-3 on a kill by Mruzik.

Jackson scored on a slide before Mruzik crushed a ball coming out of the back row to make 7-4.

Landfair got a kill to get the Huskers to 7-5, but a long rally ended with Nebraska in the net and Penn State up 8-5 as the teams changed sides.

Landfair got a kill from the right side to make it 8-6 but Mauch sailed a serve way long.

Allick’s kill pulled Nebraska to 9-7 and Murray made it 9-8 by going off the hands of Jurevicious. Penn State used its first timeout of the fifth.

Mruzik made a perfect pass off of a Rodriguez serve, got it back and had a big kill. And it got to 11-8 when Jurevicious blocked a soft Murray attempt. It was 12-8 on another Mruzik kill and Nebraska used its final timeout.

Beason had a kill from the right side and Nebraska trailed 12-9 and it was 12-10 when Jurevicious was blocked by Murray and Jackson. Penn State called its last timeout.

Penn State won the ensuing long rally on a kill by Mruzik.

Nebraska got a point when Murray’s shot caused Penn State into a ballhandling error.

It was 14-11 when Hannah tipped out of the back row. Nebraska still had life on a serving error. And it was 14-13 on an ace by Kennedi Orr.

It ended on Hannah’s blast off a block that went out of bounds.

Both teams finished 19-1 atop the Big Ten, but Penn State won their only meeting, 25-21, 14-25, 25-22, 25-23 at Penn State on November 29. 

Jurevicious had 18 kills against her old team, hitting .414, Hannah had 12 and Mruzik 10 but also 10 errors.

Harper Murray had 13 kills for Nebraska and Andi Jackson 10 and eight blocks.

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