Penn State women’s volleyball rallied back from a 0-2 set deficit and fought off two match points to beat Nebraska 3-2 (23-25, 18-25, 25-23, 28-26, 15-13) in five sets and advance to the national title game.
With their comeback, the Nittany Lions became the sixth team in NCAA Tournament history to reverse sweep a semifinal or final. It was also the first reverse sweep in the semifinals since 2018. Penn State last accomplished the feat in the NCAA Tournament when they came back to beat Texas in the 2009 National Championship.
The Cornhuskers looked poised to advance to the final after taking a commanding 2-0 set lead over the Nittany Lions. But Penn State staged an epic rally, winning the third set 25-23 and the fourth 28-26 to force a winner-take-all fifth set. Camryn Hannah’s kill sealed a 15-13 set five victory for the Nittany Lions early Friday morning.
Senior [autotag]Jess Mruzik[/autotag] led the Nittany Lions with 26 kills, and former Cornhusker [autotag]Caroline Jurevicius[/autotag] added 20 to power Penn State to its 11th NCAA championship and its first since 2017.
Mruzik was dominant in the fifth set, racking up six kills on eight swings while willing Penn State to the win, keeping the Nittany Lions’ season and her collegiate career alive for one more match.
The win marked Penn State’s second victory over Nebraska after beating them earlier this season. PSU snapped Nebraska’s 103-match winning streak in the postseason when leading 2-0.
Penn State will play the hosts, the Lousiville Cardinals, on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET. The national championship will air on ABC. A win for the Nittany Lions would mark the eighth title in program history.