HALF DOZEN: Penn State players have perfected the art of celebrating national champion- ships, winning the school’s sixth title and fi fth in seven years. (Photo: Mark Selders)
playing fi eld, and that skill is serving,” says Stan- ford Coach John Dunning, whose team narrowly missed making it to the semifi nals when it lost to Penn State in fi ve sets in the regional fi nal. “Any of these matches can be tipped by serving.” Wisconsin, seeded 12th (the lowest to ever make an NCAA women’s title match), used tough serves in the semis to fl uster and frustrate top-seeded Texas, the defending champions. Talk around the tournament was that it probably wouldn’t matter that the Longhorns’ passing wasn’t at the level of the other three semifi nal teams; the thinking went, they’d be able to compensate with an overpowering offense driven by their three big guns: outside hitters Bailey Webster and Haley Eckerman and outside/middle blocker Khat Bell. But the Badgers just kept serving them out of system and digging their heat, leading to a 25-19, 25-18, 26-28, 25-23 victory that was impressive – but not particularly shock- ing to anyone wearing Badger red or, for that matter, Big Ten coaches who had faced Wisconsin during the regular season. “I don’t think anyone in our conference was surprised,” said Minnesota Coach Hugh McCutcheon, who coached the U.S. Women’s National Volleyball Team to the silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics and the U.S. Men’s
National Volleyball Team to the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. “You have to be ready to deal with what they bring. They’re a handful.” After a match in which the Badgers held
Texas to its lowest hitting percentage of the sea- son (.156) and won despite hitting just .131 them- selves, fi rst-year Wisconsin Coach Kelly Sheffi eld made it clear that neither he nor his team viewed the Badgers as underdogs, even though they fi nished the season with more losses (10) than the other three semifi nal teams combined (8). “We believed we could win this match,” he said. “This is a really good serving team … We had to serve with confi dence … We believed if we could do that, we’d have them out of system a lot. If they’re out of system, I knew we have the best back-court in the country and we’d be able to dig some balls.” And that’s just what happened. As Texas Coach Jerritt Elliott said, “Tonight felt like it was the fi rst match of the season. We just never got comfortable.” Clearly, the other semifi nal team, hometown
favorite Washington, never got comfortable either. Husky fans turned out in large numbers to see the semifi nal nightcap against Penn State, but after taking an early lead in Set 1, the local favorite was never really in the match. An ugly
NCAA DIVISION I
WOMEN’S TITLES 1981-2013
Penn State Stanford UCLA
Hawaii
Long Beach State Nebraska
Southern California Pacifi c Texas
Washington 2013 NCAA DIVISION I
CHAMPIONSHIP At KeyArena, Seattle, Washington Semifi nals
• Wisconsin def. Texas 25-19, 25-18, 26-28, 25-23 • Penn State def. Washington 25-14, 25-13, 25-16
Final
Penn State def. Wisconsin 25-19, 26-24, 20-25, 25-23
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