Penn State became the first team from east of the Mississippi River to make it to the championship match in the western dominated NCAA women's volleyball tournament by upsetting BYU Thursday night.
Saturday the Nittany Lions gave it a good shot but failed to become the first eastern team to win the national title. Long Beach State beat Penn State in four tight games, 15-13, 12-15, 15-11, 16-14, played in front of an NCAA record crowd of 11,114 at the University of Wisconsin Fieldhouse.While Penn State won every close game in the match against BYU, the Lions struggled near the end of the games they lost to the 49ers. Penn State led 13-12 in the first game, but Long Beach scored three straight points to win. After winning the second game, Penn State led 11-7 in the third before giving up eight consecutive points. In the fourth game the Lions served for the win twice, leading 14-11, before the 49ers scored five straight points for the victory and their second national title.
The 49ers were led by Nichelle Burton's 18 kills and .406 hitting percentage. National player-of-the-year Danielle Scott added 14 kills. Burton and Scott were joined on the all-Final Four team with BYU junior setter Charlene Johnson and a trio of Nittany Lions in Salima Davidson, Jen Reimers and Zeynep Ton.