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**truebluefan** · 12-01-2007, 01:55 PM

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa., Nov. 30, 2007 - The top-ranked Penn State women's volleyball team swept Siena (30-19, 30-11, 30-14) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Rec Hall Friday night. The Nittany Lions improve to 29-2 while the Saints end their season at 24-8. Penn State will face Albany on Saturday, Dec. 1 at 7:00 p.m. at Rec Hall in the NCAA Second Round for the right to advance to the NCAA Regional semifinal next weekend at Rec Hall. The Great Danes defeated Cleveland State in three games (30-20, 30-20, 30-25) in the first match Friday.

"We certainly had a good match offensively," said head coach Russ Rose. "It's always tough for some teams to play a first round match against someone so different. Siena had a great season and represented their conference well, we were just too much at the net."

Sophomore outside hitter Megan Hodge (Durham, N.C.) led all players with 17 kills on a season-high .714 hitting as junior outside hitter Nicole Fawcett (Zanesfield, Ohio) added in 11 kills. Redshirt sophomore opposite Blair Brown (Purcellville, Va.) notched six kills on .556 hitting as junior middle hitter Christa Harmotto (Aliquippa, Pa.), freshman middle hitter Arielle Wilson (Broadview, Ill.) and sophomore setter Alisha Glass (Leland, Mich.) all contributed four kills on more than .429 hitting. As a team, Penn State attacked at a .514 clip while limiting Siena to hitting -.057.

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**truebluefan** · 12-01-2007, 01:55 PM

Lincoln, Neb. – The Nebraska volleyball team was dominant in opening defense of its national title, as the second-ranked Huskers cruised to a 30-13, 30-14, 30-13 sweep of South Dakota State in front of 4,189 fans in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament at the NU Coliseum.

Nebraska hit at least .367 in every game, while South Dakota State hit negative in each of the three games. The Huskers also recorded 12 blocks, while the Jackrabbits were unable to record a single stuff.

On the match, NU hit .378, while SDSU committed 24 errors and recorded just 19 kills en route to a season-low -.052 attack percentage.

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**truebluefan** · 12-01-2007, 01:56 PM

Stanford, Calif. - The Stanford women's volleyball team handed its first opponent of the 2007 NCAA Tournament a 3-0 sweep tonight, as the top-seeded Cardinal bested Santa Clara 30-20, 30-28, 30-27 at Maples Pavilion. Stanford heads to the Second Round tomorrow night with a 28-2 record, while Santa Clara ends its season at 19-12.

Freshman Alix Klineman was the star for the Cardinal, posting 19 kills, a career-high seven blocks, her eighth double-double of the year and a .425 hitting percentage. Junior middle blocker Foluke Akinradewo added 11 kills on 18 tries (.556) and junior outside hitter Cynthia Barboza chipped in 10 kills. Senior setter Bryn Kehoe had 47 assists and ten digs, while carrying the team to a .395 hitting percentage. Junior outside hitter Brittany Lowe led Santa Clara with a match-high 20 kills on the night.

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**truebluefan** · 12-01-2007, 01:57 PM

Gainesville, FL
Freshman opposite hitter Lauren Bledsoe (Long Beach, Calif.) ripped a career-high 12 kills and provided a key late-match service run to help lead the 10th-ranked and 13th-seeded University of Florida volleyball team to a 3-0 (30-24, 30-24, 36-34) win over Oklahoma in the second round of the NCAA Championship.

With the win, the Gators advanced to the NCAA regional semifinal for the 16th time in 17 seasons under head coach Mary Wise.

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**truebluefan** · 12-07-2007, 06:21 PM

In December 2004, Franci Girard and Bryn Kehoe were celebrating a national championship win over Minnesota. The middle blocker and setter for the top-ranked Stanford women’s volleyball team, now seniors, are hoping to see their final season on the Farm end the same way that their first did.

The pair had their season end early as sophomores, losing in the second round when the Cardinal was depleted by injuries, including a broken hand that prevented Kehoe from setting. Last year, Stanford returned to the Final Four in top form, but lost a four-game match to Nebraska. A rematch between the two teams, the top seeds in the 2007 postseason, would be the perfect end to this season in the minds of the seniors.

The Cardinal had little trouble advancing to the Sweet Sixteen this past weekend and will host three teams it has already beaten this year in this weekend’s Stanford Regional. Stanford beat No. 16 Cal Poly in a preseason tournament in Maples and recorded two victories over Oregon and No. 8 UCLA in the Pac-10, with a sweep and a four-game win over each.

“You can say you’ve played a team already in the season, but playoffs brings out something entirely different in every team,” junior outside hitter Cynthia Barboza said after Saturday’s win. “Just because we beat them before doesn’t mean really anything.”

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**truebluefan** · 12-07-2007, 06:22 PM

The Cal Poly San Luis Obispo volleyball team is in the sweet 16 for the first time in 22 years. One more win, and it will be the first time ever the Mustangs reach the elite eight, but that won't be easy.

After two "straight sets wins" in the first two rounds in the NCAA Tournament over Xavier and Purdue in Ohio, the Mustangs will have to travel to Stanford and take on the number one seeded Cardinal Nine Friday evening.

Cal Poly knows all about Stanford, having played them at their place earlier in the year, but it was a 0-3 loss for the Mustangs.

Either way, Cal Poly head coach Jon Stevenson says his team which has won 14 straight matches is feeling very confident and believes there could be plenty volleyball left to play.

Stanford has won an NCAA record six national championships in women's volleyball, and has been to the championship match in four of the past six years.

Friday's match will be televised nationally on ESPNU.

**truebluefan** · 12-07-2007, 06:23 PM

Penn State women's volleyball coach Russ Rose has made these eight words abundantly clear to his team since the NCAA tournament bracket was released more than a week ago: "It's how you play, not who you play."

Apparently his team took heed.

The No. 3-seed Nittany Lions overpowered Siena and Albany in the first two rounds of the tournament in one of school's most dominant weekends in its rich volleyball history.

While Penn State took care of its own business, six of the 16 seeded teams did not survive the first weekend of tournament play.

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**truebluefan** · 12-07-2007, 06:26 PM

When Nebraska suddenly found itself playing Minnesota on a neutral court, rather than against Florida in front of thousands of Gator fans, the Huskers were thrown off their game a year ago.

All season, they had prepared knowing that they would have to win under hostile conditions to get to the Final Four.

Fast forward a year and Nebraska is preparing to head to Wisconsin, where once again, the hometown team won’t be a factor.

“The difference is, this time, we already know Wisconsin is out,” Nebraska head coach John Cook said on Tuesday. “If we learned anything from last year, we know it’s going to be two really tough matches.”

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**truebluefan** · 12-07-2007, 06:27 PM

Brad Saindon's five-year tenure as Arizona State's volleyball coach is over after the school declined to re-sign him Monday.

"We have retained all of our athletes and graduated them, but our win-loss record is not where the administration would like it to be," Saindon said.

Saindon finished with a 58-86 overall record at ASU, including one NCAA tournament appearance in 2006. The Sun Devils were 15-16 this season (seventh place) and 7-11 in the Pac-10.

ASU Senior Associate Athletic Director Dawn Rogers said in a prepared statement that the school was appreciative of Saindon's service but decided to go in a different direction.

Rogers will conduct the search for Saindon's replacement and will get input from Vice President of Athletics Lisa Love, a former volleyball coach at Southern California.

"I'm disappointed that I'm not going to be retained, but I also understand their view point," Saindon said. "I just wish the next coach and this team all the best. I think there is going to be a wonderful future here."

Saindon, an ASU alum, previously coached for 10 years at Colorado.

His five-year contract at ASU had a starting base salary of $82,000.

**truebluefan** · 12-09-2007, 04:39 PM

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (Dec. 7, 2007) -- BYU's magical run through the NCAA Tournament continued Friday night as the Cougars swept Middle Tennessee State in the Regional Semifinals to earn their first Regional Finals appearance since 1998. With the 30-28, 30-22, 34-32 win, BYU will now be one of just eight teams still playing for a National Championship. The Cougars will play in the round of eight Saturday at 6:30 p.m. ET (4:30 p.m. MT) against the winner for Friday's second match between Michigan and No. 1 Penn State. The match will be broadcast on ESPNU.

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