No. 2 women’s volleyball places with no. 3 Nebraska in National Semifinal Thursday – Penn State

On By Littum

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- No. 2 Penn State Women’s Volleyball is back in the national semifinals for the first time since 2017 when it takes on No. 3 Nebraska at Louisville’s KFC Yum! Center Thursday. The match will start 30 minutes after the end of the first semi-final and will be broadcast live on ESPN>

The winner of Thursday’s game advances to the national championship, where it will face the winner between No. 1 Pitt and no. 4 Louisville on Sunday at 3 p.m. That game will be broadcast live on ABC.

HOW TO FOLLOW
National semi-final | Thursday 19 December | 30 minutes after the end of the first semi-final
#1 seed Nebraska (33-2) vs #1 seed Penn State (33-2) | Live statistics | ESPN

OPENING NOTES
• Penn State is set to compete in the NCAA National Semifinal for the 14th time out of a possible 44 NCAA Tournament appearances.
• It is the Nittany Lions’ first NCAA National Semifinal appearance since 2017.
• The Nittany Lions are the only program to compete in all 44 NCAA Division I women’s volleyball tournaments.
• Thursday marks Penn State’s first NCAA National Semifinal appearance under head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley, who is in her third season as the Penn State head coach. The Nittany Lions lost in the regional semifinals in each of her first two seasons. It will be the 11th NCAA Tournament game overall with Schumacher-Cawley as head coach. They are 8-2 in the postseason in that time.

PENN STATE NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY
• Penn State, which has won seven national titles, is 114-36 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.
• The Nittany Lions are 73-3 in NCAA Tournament games played at Rec Hall.
• Penn State has made the national semifinals 13 times and the national championship game 10 times.

PENN STATE IN NATIONAL SEMIFINALS
• The Nittany Lions are 10-3 all-time in the national semifinals. They have beaten nine different teams in the round – Nebraska (2x), BYU, Cal, Florida, Hawaii, Pacific, Stanford, Texas and Washington.
• Penn State will play in the national semifinals for the first time since 2017, when it lost in five sets to Nebraska in Kansas City.
• The Nittany Lions are 2-1 against Nebraska in the national semifinals, winning in 1998 and 2008.

SERIES HISTORY
• Penn State is 12-28 in the all-time series with Nebraska. The teams first played in 1981.
• The Nittany Lions won the last game between the teams 3-1 at Rec Hall on Nov. 29 this season. Redshirt freshman Caroline Jurevicius had her best game of the season in the win, hitting .414 with 18 kills and two blocks. Jess Mruzik had a double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs, while Izzy Starck had a double-double with 46 assists and 11 digs. Maggie Mendelson contributed eight kills and six blocks.
• Penn State is 3-8 against Nebraska in the NCAA Tournament. The Huskers won the most recent postseason matchup 3-2 in 2017. That game was played at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo.

HOW THEY GOT HERE – PENN STATE
• Penn State earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament after going 29-2 overall and 19-1 in the Big Ten en route to its first conference title since 2017.
• The Nittany Lions received one of the four top seeds and the right to host their games through the regional final.
• In the tournament’s opening weekend, Penn State opened with a 3-0 sweep of MEAC champion Delaware State and followed that with a 3-1 win over North Carolina behind 21 kills from Jess Mruzik.
• Penn State improved its record to 33-2 with a 3-1 win over Marquette in the NCAA Regional Semifinal and a 3-2 win over sixth-ranked Creighton in the NCAA Regional Final. Camryn Hannah hit .476 with 24 kills, while Jess Mruzik recorded a double-double with 20 kills and 13 digs against the Golden Eagles. Mruzik tallied 20 kills, eight digs and four blocks, while Caroline Jurevicius added 11 kills and Gillian Grimes contributed 17 digs in win over Bluejays.

HOW THEY GOT HERE – NEBRASKA
• Nebraska earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament after sharing the Big Ten title with Penn State but losing automatic bid tiebreaker due to a head-to-head loss. The Cornhuskers went 29-2 overall and 19-1 in the conference during the regular season.
• Huskers, the overall no. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament, opened the postseason with back-to-back sweeps over Florida A&M and Miami in the first and second rounds.
• Nebraska then raised its record to 33-2 overall with a 3-1 victory over No. 23 Dayton in the regional semifinal and a sweep of seventh-ranked Wisconsin in the regional final. Andi Jackson hit .474 with 10 kills and five blocks in the win over the Badgers. Lexi Rodriguez led all players with 17 digs.
• The Huskers advanced to the National Championship game last season, falling to Texas in three sets.

STRIPES TO SEE
Ava Falduto
· 5 straight games with at least an ace

Gillian Grimes
· 8 straight games with double-digit digs

Camryn Hannah
· 3 straight matches with at least an ace

Jess Mruzik
· 9 straight matches with double digit kills

UP NEXT
• The winner of Thursday’s game advances to the national championship on Sunday, where Penn State would go for its eighth national title and Nebraska would try for its sixth.