| LINESCORE | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | F | |
| Penn State (35-3) | 25 | 23 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
| Stanford (33-2) | 16 | 25 | 22 | 21 | 1 |
| STAT COMPARISON | ||
|---|---|---|
| PSU | STAN | |
| Kills | 65 | 52 |
| Attack pct. | .279 | .207 |
| Assists | 61 | 48 |
| Aces | 4 | 3 |
| Digs | 70 | 69 |
| Blocks | 10.0 | 6.0 |
OKLAHOMA CITY – The No. 1 Stanford women’s volleyball team’s season came to an end Thursday night with a 3-1 loss to defending national champion Penn State in the NCAA semifinal at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City. The Nittany Lions (35-3) move on to face BYU, the first unseeded team to appear in an NCAA championship.
Stanford's 33 wins ties a program record. The Cardinal won 28 consecutive matches to start the season, which was also a school record.
Junior outside hitter Brittany Howard led Stanford (33-2) with 13 kills, nine digs and three blocks. Redshirt freshman middle blocker Merete Lutz and junior outside hitter Jordan Burgess added 10 kills each for the Cardinal, which beat Penn State in the regular season.
Defensively, senior libero Kyle Gilbert finished with 18 digs, including the 2,000th of her career. She becomes just the second Cardinal player to reach the 2,000 dig milestone joining Gabi Ailes (2007-10).
Junior setter Madi Bugg ran the offense, collecting 47 assists and 11 digs for her 15th double-double of the year. Junior middle blocker Inky Ajanaku totaled nine kills and three blocks, while senior opposite Morgan Boukather chipped in with eight kills and 12 digs.
Penn State will look for its record seventh championship Saturday night. Stanford and PSU are the only two schools to own six titles. Junior outside hitter Megan Courtney led Penn State with a career-high 23 kills.
BYU beat Texas 25-23, 25-16, 17-25, 26-24 in the first semifinal.