Courtesy of Penn State Athletics (@gopsusports) on Instagram
Penn State became the 2024 NCAA Women’s Volleyball Champions today, beating Louisville 3-1. This is Penn State’s eighth volleyball championship title and their first in ten years.
An NCAA volleyball national championship attendance record was broken with 21,860 people in attendance in Louisville. Both teams pulled upsets to get to the championship, with Louisville beating No. 1 Pittsburgh and Penn State beating No. 2 Nebraska, and both teams proved through all four sets that they weren’t going down without a fight for the championship title.
This is the first time that two women head coaches faced off in the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championship. Louisville is led by Nebraska volleyball alum Dani Busboom Kelly and Penn State is led by Penn State volleyball and basketball alum Katie Schumacher-Cawley who has continued coaching after her breast cancer diagnosis. Schumacher-Cawley has now made history as the first woman head coach to win the NCAA volleyball championship title!
The Nittany Lions were led by graduate student outside hitter Jess Mruzik with 29 kills, graduate student outside/right-side hitter Camryn Hannah with 19 kills, freshman outside/right-side hitter Caroline Jurevicius with 10 kills, and freshman Izzy Starck who recorded 55 assists. Penn State’s defense held Louisville to a .196 hitting percentage.
Penn State took the first set 25-23, Louisville putting up a fight in front of their home crowd.
The second set was probably the most exciting set in NCAA volleyball history. At one point, the Cardinals were down 24-19. They came back and survived ten set points to win the set, and even the match at 1-1. The 66 total points scored by the Cardinals and Nittany Lions is an NCAA Women’s Volleyball Championship record.
Penn State went up 2-1, taking the third set 25-20. The championship title was on the line in the fourth set. The Nittany Lions took the fourth set 25-17 to win the championship for the eighth time.
Penn State is now only one championship title away from beating Stanford’s all time record of nine titles.
Congratulations to Katie Schumacher-Cawley and the Nittany Lions!
Courtesy of Penn State Women’s Volleyball (@pennstatevball) on Instagram
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