Cal Women's Volleyball Out To End Penn State Dynasty
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- No team is playing better volleyball than California and no team could be more motivated to bring down the dynasty of three-time defending national champion Penn State.
The Golden Bears get their chance Saturday night in the NCAA final at the Sprint Center, where they hope to redeem themselves against the team that has beaten them three years in a row in the postseason.
"We're confident, but we're not overconfident, and we're not going to assume we're going to do anything before we do it," Cal coach Rich Feller said Friday. "Penn State has for sure, I think, intimidated teams in this tournament. They are a great team. But there are two teams left standing now, and we've earned our right to be here."
Penn State (31-5) last year became the first program to win three straight titles, and the fourth-seeded Nittany Lions looked primed to claim another one during their dominating three-set sweep of Texas in Thursday's semifinals.
Seventh-seeded Cal (30-3) has rolled off five straight 3-0 wins in the tournament and was just as impressive as Penn State in the semifinals, sweeping Pac-10 rival Southern California to avenge two regular-season losses. The Bears are in the final for the first time.
"As I watched them play yesterday, it's easy for me to say it's the best Cal team we'll have played," said 32nd-year Penn State coach Russ Rose, who could become the first Division I volleyball coach to win a fifth national title. "They've got, as we had in the past, two players who could be stealing votes from each other for player of the year in Carli Lloyd and Tarah Murrey. They have a great system and defensive package that allows them to cause teams problems."
Lloyd, a senior setter, and Murrey, a junior outside hitter, are the women who make the Bears go. They're the first Cal players to make first-team All-American in the same year.
They'll face a Penn State that has undergone significant personnel changes since last season but, as always, are big and physical.
National freshman of the year Deja McClendon and four other rookies play regularly, and the Nittany Lions have a new setter in sophomore Kristin Carpenter. She has her choice of go-to players in McClendon and repeat All-Americans Arielle Wilson and Blair Brown.
Cal lost to Penn State in the 2007 national semifinals and in 2008 and '09 in regional finals, all Penn State sweeps.
"We have a lot of young players that don't know what it's like to play Cal at this stage in the game, so I think it's good for the older players to have experience with Cal," junior outside hitter Katie Kabbes said. "It gives us a lot of confidence going in knowing that we've handled them in the past, and that we can do it again as long as we come out and play our best."
Rose said his unbeaten 2008 and '09 teams might have had some opponents beaten mentally before matches started. He doubts that's the case now.
The program's NCAA-record 109-match win streak ended with a three-set loss to Stanford in September, and back-to-back October losses to unranked Purdue and Indiana left Penn State 3-3 in Big Ten play.
"The past three years when we had a roster of players who demonstrated they could handle all comers, it was maybe a little bit different," Rose said. "The confidence that group had is different than what this group has. This group has struggled and lost some matches and had some sand kicked in their face, and you have to get back up. For this group to be where they are, totally different."
If common opponents are to be used as a point of comparison, Cal has the advantage.
The Nittany Lions split with Minnesota, losing a five-set match three weeks ago. Cal swept the Gophers in the Seattle Regional semifinals. Cal also owns two four-set victories over Stanford, the team that ended Penn State's long winning streak.
Kabbes said she and her teammates don't feel pressure to carry on the championship run for the sake of the players who preceded them.
"The players before us left a wonderful legacy that we were part of, a few of us," she said. "Now going for that fourth title, it's what we want. It's what we worked so hard for all season. They left their legacy, we want to leave ours."
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