Dec. 18, 1999
HONOLULU - Stanford's run at a fifth NCAA women'svolleyball championship was stopped by top-ranked Penn State as the NittanyLions topped the Cardinal 15-2, 15-10, 15-7 to win their first NCAA title.The second-place finish for Stanford is its fourth in school history andsnapped a four-match win streak in national championship matches thatStanford had compiled by winning NCAA titles in 1992, '94, '96 and '97.Stanford had previously finished second in 1984, '85 and '87. The NittanyLions had reached the finals in each of the last two seasons before fallingto Stanford in 1997 and Long Beach State last year. Penn State finishes itsseason with a 36-1 record, winning 36 straight matches after losing itsseason-opener. Stanford has its 20-match win streak snapped and finishesthe year with a 31-3 mark.
"The match was won in the first game when we had 10 blocks," saidvictorious Penn State head coach Russ Rose. "We had a great game plan andthe players played with a lot of passion and enthusiasm. I think theplayers put themselves in this situation and handled all the stress thatnormally comes in a match like this as well as they possibly could."
"You have to give Penn State credit because they played very well," statedStanford head coach Don Shaw. "However, we didn't give ourselves a chancewith the way we played. Penn State must have played well, but I was so busydoing damage control that I won't know just how well they played until Isee the tape."
Penn State senior middle hitter and Co-National Player of the Year LaurenCacciamani was named the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Championshipsafter leading the Nittany Lions with match-highs of 20 kills and eightblocks in tonight's win. Stanford Co-National Player of the Year KerriWalsh and the Cardinal's Logan Tom were selected as members of the NCAAChampionships all-tournament team. Walsh led the Cardinal with 11 kills inher final match of a brilliant college career that included two NCAAtitles, three Final Four appearances, four Pac-10 titles and a 122-11record during her tenure.
However, Penn State dominated tonight's match by holding Stanford to aseason-low attack percentage of -.008. The Cardinal committed a season-high40 errors as Penn State outblocked Stanford (15.0 - 10.5), marking just thefourth time this year the Cardinal has been outblocked by an opponent.Stanford never really got untracked as the Nittany Lions led wire-to-wireother than a brief 3-1 Stanford lead in game two.
"Normally, even when we play poorly we usually battle and give ourselves achance to pull out of it," added Shaw. "We just didn't do that tonight."
"We were missing all night," mentioned Walsh. "We just didn't do anythingright."
The match started out poorly for the Cardinal as Penn State scored thefirst eight points of game one before the Stanford finally got on boardwhen Tom and Jennifer Detmer teamed up to block a Penn State attackattempt. Stanford would score only one more point the entire first game asPenn State rolled to a 15-2 victory. Cacciamani led the Nittany Lions withfive kills and four blocks, while Katie Schumacher added three kills andfour blocks. Penn State had 10 team blocks in the game, holding Stanford toa season-low single-game attack percentage of -.152 (12-19-46). Walsh ledthe Cardinal with six kills but also committed five errors. Tom had fiveerrors and just one kill as she hit -.571.
The second game started out better for the Cardinal as Stanford bolted to aquick 3-1 lead. However, Penn State would score the next three points tolead 4-3 and never trailed again. The Cardinal did manage to tie the gamethree times after that point with the final tie coming at 6-6. The NittanyLions then unleashed a fierce rally and scored the next six points to takea commanding 12-6 lead as Stanford gave up four of the points on attackerrors during the run. Stanford did mount a mini-comeback to cut the scoreto 13-10 on a kill by Lindsey Yamasaki. A solo block by Cacciamani returnedthe serve to the Nittany Lions before block assists by Mishka Levy andCarrie Schonveld gave the Nittany Lions game point. Penn State wrapped upthe game on its first game point when an attempt by Walsh sailed long.Cacciamani was once again the dominant force for Penn State with eightkills and three blocks in game two. Yamasaki and Tom each had four killsfor Stanford.
The Nittany Lions started the third game by scoring the first four points,the final two coming on errors by Walsh. Stanford briefly stayed in thecontest with its best stretch of the match, eventually cutting Penn State'slead to 7-6 after back-to-back attack errors by Penn State. However, theNittany Lions scored the next four points to take a commanding 11-6 lead.Stanford scored the next point on another Penn State attack error beforethe Nittany Lions closed out the match with four consecutive points, all onCacciamani's serve.
Nittany Lions hand Cardinal a 15-2, 15-10, 15-7 defeat to pick up firstNCAA ChampionshipMost Outstanding Player Lauren Cacciamani knocks down a match-high 20 killsStanford's Kerri Walsh and Logan Tom selected to all-tournament team
1999 NCAA DIVISION I WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Lauren Cacciamani - Penn State (Most Outstanding Player)
Bonnie Bremner - Penn State
Carrie Schonveld - Penn State
Elsa Stegemann - Pacific
Logan Tom - Stanford
Kerri Walsh - Stanford