Mruzik, Penn State overpower Louisville to win NCAA volleyball title

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky — Katie Schumacher-Cawley, the reluctant inspiration and one hell of a coach, is now the only member of the most exclusive club in NCAA Division I women’s volleyball.

She has won national championships as a player and a coach.

The first came in 1999 when Penn State defeated Stanford for the school’s first title.

The second came Sunday afternoon when the Nittany Lions (35-2) put an exclamation point on the most unpredictable season in NCAA history with a 25-23, 32-34, 25-20, 25-17 victory over Louisville (30-6). 

“I think it’s pretty crazy that I came back and I’m with Penn State, and to win it as a coach is really special,” said Schumacher-Cawley, who joined her old coach Russ Rose as an assistant and then got the job when he retired three years ago. “Someone asked is it better as a player or as a coach? Like I said, I just like to win, and I like to compete, and I like to help our players be the best they can.

“This is pretty cool, though, as a coach. It’s pretty neat. Yeah, I would say probably as a coach right now.”

It was Penn State’s eighth crown, one fewer than Stanford, and put an end to a 2024 season in which Schumacher coached a blend of young players and veteran transfers all the while battling breast cancer. And she became the first woman to coach a team to the title.

“A historic day for volleyball,” said Louisville coach Dani Busboom Kelly, who took Louisville to the season’s last match for the second time in three years. “We’re very happy for Katie. It’s a big deal for this sport. I’m very thankful that that monkey is off its back and we can move on and that more women will be in this position in the future.”

There is no doubt that will happen as volleyball continues to explode on all fronts.

The 21,860 on hand in the KFC Yum! Center broke the NCAA Championship attendance record set Thursday of 21,726 on hand for the semifinals. It marked another season with better TV ratings and more parity than ever.

But in the end, these national semifinals brought together the four No. 1 seeds, and in the semifinals Louisville ousted Pittsburgh and Penn State pulled off a reverse sweep against Nebraska.

Jess Mruzik, the transfer from Michigan who capped her career with back-to-back career highs here, led Penn State with 29 kills, hitting .315 after taking 73 swings. She had an assist, an ace and 10 digs. 

“The standard at Penn State is winning national championships,” Mruzik said. “That’s how it’s always been. That’s what Coach Rose instilled, and that’s what we try to uphold every single day. Yeah, this is like a dream come true, but when you come to Penn State, you’re a Penn Stater for life, and the ultimate goal is winning a national championship.”

The other outside, Camryn Hannah, a transfer from Clemson, had 19 kills, including the match-winner, to go with an ace, three digs and two blocks one solo. Caroline Jurevicious, a transfer from Nebraska, had 10 kills, three digs and two blocks. 

Taylor Trammel, a transfer from Purdue, had eight kills with one error in 15 attacks to hit .467 and had three blocks, and the other middle, Maggie Mendelson, another transfer from Nebraska, had six kills with one error in 14 attacks, an assist, a dig and six blocks, one solo.

Setter Izzy Starck had 55 assists, an ace, a block and 13 digs and Gillian Grimes had 16 digs, seven assists and an ace. Penn State hit .277.

After winning in 1999 — Katie Schumacher was a standout on that team — Penn State won four NCAA titles in a row from 2007-2010 and then went back to back in 2013-14.

Louisville, as expected, played without its team leader and best player, outside Anna DeBeer. She sprained her ankle two points into the fourth set against Pitt in the semifinals and never returned. 

Charitie Luper led Louisville with 21 kills, six digs and a block. Payton Peterson, the freshman thrust in DeBeer’s spot, had 13 swings without a kill before getting her first in the third set. She finished with four kills and four errors, three aces, 10 digs and two blocks. 

Arizona transfer Sofia Maldonado Diaz had 20 kills as she finished her career with a flourish, hitting .400 to go with six digs and five blocks. Cara Cresse had four kills, an assist and seven blocks. Libero Elena Scott was spectacular at times for the Cardinals and had 24 digs and seven assists. Louisville hit .196.

Louisville is the only ACC team to get to the final.

“I thought our team was really impressive. I think it’s emotional when you have a player like Anna out, who you know that — everybody in this building knows that that outcome, it might not be different, but it would have been a different match,” Busboom Kelly said.

“She sacrificed a lot, and to see this game taken away from her was really tough. Like I said, it was an incredible performance by Charitie and Sofia … We had a lot of players step up. It was really impressive to see.”

In the first set, Louisville went on a three-point run to tie it at 19. Penn State regained the lead when Mruzik tipped to end a tremendous defensive rally by both teams and it was 21-19 on Grimes’ ensuing ace to the right corner.

After a Louisville timeout, Grimes went for the same corner on the next serve, but it went long. Jurevicious got the lead to 22-20 with kill off Luper’s block and it was 23-23 on Ava Falduto’s ace. 

Luper got a kill and a long rally ended with Penn State in the net and it was 23-22. Schumacher-Cawley, however, quickly went for her challenge card, claiming that Louisville was in the net earlier in the rally. The challenge was denied.

The score was tied when Peterson made a big dig and Luper got a kill.

Kong was in the net and Penn State led 24-23. The set ended with Mruzik acing Luper, who finished the first set with seven kills and one error in 17 attacks to go with a dig. Trammel had four of her kills with no errors in five swings.

Penn State had a 19-13 second-set lead that Louisville whittled to 19-18, but the run ended on a service error by Peterson. Penn State gave it right back, however, on a serving error by Hannah and it was 20-19.

Penn State went up 21-19 on a kill by Jurvicious, Maldonado Diaz had a hitting error and Mruzik got a kill and Louisville couldn’t come from being down 23-19. 

Penn State was forced to call another timeout up 24-22.

Luper got a kill to make it 24-23 and the crowd erupted. It got louder when Jurevicious hit out and it was tied 24-24.

Cabello served long but Louisville stayed alive on a kill by Maldonado Diaz out of the left side.

Mruzik crushed a ball cross court and Penn State was up 26-25. But Maldonado Diaz got a kill, this time on the right side, to tie it again.

Penn State had the lead again when Starck and Mendelson blocked Peterson.  But Louisville wouldn’t go away, with Cresse repeling an over on two by Starck.

Hannah’s kill gave Penn State a 28-27 lead but Starck served into the net.

Incredibly, Louisville went ahead 29-28 when Penn State was called out of rotation on serve receive, but the Nittany Lions staff convinced the officials the call was incorrect. No matter, because Peterson served an ace and Louisville was up 29-28. 

Hannah tied it with a kill, but Peterson’s perfect pass led to Luper swiping the ball off the block and Louisville lead 30-29. It was tied at 30 on a kill by Mruzik.

Penn State gave Louisville a free ball and Luper converted to make it 31-30, but Mruzik’s kill tied it at 31. She gave Penn State a 32-31 lead and its 10th set point with another kill. 

Louisville tied it on a kill by Maldonado Diaz and took another lead 33-32 on Luper’s roll shot that capped a long rally. Louisville won the set 34-32 when Maldonado Diaz and Hannah Sherman blocked Hannah’s back-row attack.

After two sets, Luper had 16 of her kills with only two errors in 36 swings and was hitting .389. Maldonado Diaz had 13 kills with three errors in 26 attacks, hitting .385. Hannah had 11 for Penn State and Mruzik 10.

Even with the upper hand throughout Penn State had to battle to the end to win the third set. A 19-13 lead was cut to 22-19 when Sherman and Maldonado Diaz blocked Mruzik. But the Nittany Lions closed it out with a 4-1 run that included two kills by Mruzik, leaving her with 20 after three sets.

The fourth set was all Penn State.

***

When they played in the third match of the season for both teams on September 3 at Penn State, the Nittany Lions hit .358 and destroyed Louisville 25-15, 25-19, 25-13. 

Mruzik led with 13 kills and Jurevicious had 11. Louisville, which hit .091, got eight kills each from Cresse and Luper. DeBeer had two kills but seven errors and Maldonado Diaz had three kills and two errors. Peterson, who played two sets, had no kills in seven attempts.

***

Many of the players in the match will see each other in the Pro Volleyball Federation.

DeBeer was the second pick overall by the new Indy Ignite franchise. Scott was the first pick of the second round by Indy.

Hannah went fourth overall to Vegas and Luper was the last pick of the third round, also by Vegas.

Trammell was the fourth pick of the third round by Indy.

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