Penn St. takes third straight volleyball championship

Greatness can be achieved by those who believe in it.

The Penn State women's volleyball team proved it is one of the all-time great ones Saturday night at the Forum.

The longest active winning streak in NCAA Division I women's sports history continued in dramatic fashion, as No. 1 Penn State defeated No. 2 Texas to win the national championship in five sets, 22-25, 20-25, 25-23, 25-21, 15-13. The victory secured the program's third consecutive title and its fourth overall.

"They just won three national titles in a row," Penn State coach Russ Rose said. "Not a lot of people have done stuff like that. They just willed us to win."

Penn State's history-making streak of 102 consecutive wins continues, as it hasn't lost a match since Sept 15, 2007.

No team in the 29-year history of the women's tournament had won three consecutive titles. Southern California and UCLA came close, but both fell short. USC won in 2002 and 2003, but lost in the 2004 semifinals. UCLA won titles in 1990 and 1991 but lost in the 1992 final.

For the first time during that streak, Penn State (38-0) found itself in an 0-2 hole Saturday. The Nittany Lions entered Game 3 with urgency, propelled by senior All-American Megan Hodge, who had six kills and a block during the game. Penn State led by as many as seven points at 18-11, but senior Destinee Hooker rallied Texas to close the deficit to 22-20.

Penn State carried the momentum into Game 4, battling through nine ties with Texas (29-2) to force the fifth set.

Hodge, who on Friday was named the American Volleyball Coaches Association Division I National Player of the Year, finished with 21 kills.

"It was us just stepping up," Hodge said. "We took it upon ourselves to improve. We had to fight."

Hooker was a force in the match as well, finishing with a career-high 34 kills. In Game 2, she scored 11 of her team's 20 points, including six kills during an 8-2 Texas run.

"(Texas) kind of took the momentum out of the first two sets, but we knew we could play a lot better than we played," Rose said. "Hooker is an unbelievable player. We started to play a lot harder and got some good touches in the back. Megan and Alisha (Glass) didn't start very strong, but they ended strong."

On the final play of the match, with the score 14-13, Penn State received a serve from Texas All-America senior Ashley Engle. Junior Arielle Wilson set up Hodge on the left side of the court, and the 6-foot-3 four-time All-American delivered a kill that bounced off the hands of Hooker and out of bounds to end the match.

"We are senior and we came in at intermission and knew we had to step it up," Hodge said. "We had to do that for our team. We should have been carrying our team. I think it was the hardest fight we've had in our lives, but we're so happy right now. This is the stage you want to be on."