Stanford Shuts Down Long Beach State

HONOLULU —  Stanford swept Long Beach State, 15-10, 15-10, 15-3, in the semifinals of the NCAA women’s volleyball playoffs Thursday night, advancing to the title game for the second time in three years.

Stanford will meet Penn State (35-1) in the championship match Saturday. The Cardinal defeated Penn State for the title in 1997.

Stanford took an 8-2 lead in the opening game on Cheryl Weaver’s kill, then extended it to 11-6 on an attack error by Veronica Walls. A tandem block by Logan Tom and Tara Conrad made it 14-8, and Tom finished off the game with a kill.

Long Beach led, 3-0 and 6-3 in the second game, but the Cardinal scored 11 of the next 15 points and took game point on Tom’s kill. Lindsay Kagawa then ended the game with an ace.

Stanford took a 4-0 lead in the third game on an ace by Kagawa. An ace by Tom made it 8-0 and consecutive kills by Lindsey Yamasaki made 11-0.

Penn State defeated Pacific, 14-16, 15-5, 15-6, 7-15, 15-12, in the other semifinal.

Lauren Cacciamani had 26 kills to lead the No. 1-ranked Nittany Lions.

It was only the second time this season that the Nittany Lions (35-1) have been forced to five games. Penn State has won 35 consecutive matches since losing its opener to Florida.

Carrie Schonveld added 19 kills, and Katie Schumaker had 15. Elsa Stegemann led Pacific (32-2) with 31 kills.

“I thought it was a great match that you would expect to see in the final four between two evenly matched opponents,” Penn State Coach Russ Rose said. “We could have just as easily lost that match.”