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12/18/1999
Championship match between Stanford and the Penn State Nittany Lions

Oh it was so painful that Stanford lost. Sure Penn State was rated number 1 in the nation. Sure Penn State had never won the NCAA championship. Sure Penn State had been in the final four in the past two years and only to lose to Stanford in 97 and Long Beach State in 98. Sure Stanford had already won four times in the '90s. There were a lot of good reasons for Penn State to win. The Nittany Lions was due to win a championship. They deserved it. However, it still hurt when Stanford lost the championship. I felt especially bad for the senior players who have to end their college career in this fashion, especially Kerri Walsh.

  [a photo of Logan Tom blocking from AP] Well, there is always next year. It had been great fun following these women players when they started the quest for the championship from a field of 64 teams a few weeks ago. I'm looking forward to all the excellent freshman, sophomore, and junior players returning for another run at the national championship. Besides, in December 2000 I'll still be celebrating my 39.99th birthday, so the Stanford Women Volleyball team has another chance of making my birthday celebration complete! :-) I'm sure with the talented team and coaches, they will go

"ALL THE WAY" in the new millennium!

Maybe I should book a ticket to the 2000 NCAA championship :-)

Richmond Coliseum
Virginia Commonwealth University, host
December 14 and 16, 2000

See you then!

Game 1

Game 1 started innocently. Tom even had a nice kill.

Walsh was serving. Stanford quickly fell behind 0 to 7 in game 1.

Tom was not too happy with Stanford trailing 1 to 8.

Conrad was slightly stunned too.

Walsh's jump serve was not able to turn the Penn State's tide, and the Stanford was definitely out of rhythm with a score of 1 to 10. Stanford was notorious for being slow starters, but this was ridiculous.

Tara Conrad going up for one of her kills. It was too little and too late. Nice form though. I was impressed by her height and her arm extension.

Stanford lost game 1 2 to 15!

Game 1 concluded with Stanford having 12 kills and Penn State with 11 kills. However, Stanford had only 3 vs. Penn State's 9 blocks. The most glaring problem was Stanford's 20 hitting errors! Can you believe that!

Game 2

The first part of game 2 was a little more competitive. Jamie Gregory was serving while Stanford was behind only 4 to 5.

Lindsay Kagawa the setting was surveying the Penn State's defense.

Could Tom regain her composure?

Here was #15 Logan Tom going up for one of her kills. I have always been impressed by her athletic abilities. Look at how high she jumped. I'm envious of her arm and wrist cock right before spiking the ball.

Stanford's chance was fading with Stanford trailing 10 to 13 in game 2. Here was Lindsey Yamasaki in her defensive position.

Game 2 ended with Stanford losing 10 to 15. The Penn State's coach was all business.

After 2 games Stanford accumulated 30 hitting errors. Ouch!

Game 3

In Game 3 Penn State jumped to an early lead 5 to 1. Here was Kagawa serving.

Smiles were hard to come by on the Stanford team. At least Sandra Sandrik was able to smile briefly.

Game 3 came to a quick end with Stanford losing 7 to 15. As the Nittany Lions celebrated their first national championship, Stanford was still shell shocked. Here was Kerri Walsh walking off the court with frustration and disbelief.

It was just not possible to win a national championship with 40 hitting errors in just 3 games.

Well, I'm looking forward to Stanford women volleyball team going ALL THE WAY in year 2000!

Here was the story from the Stanford WEB.

Cardinal Falls To Penn State In National Championship Match

Women's volleyball squad finishes the season 31-3 following 3-0 setback to Nittany Lions.

Dec. 18, 1999

HONOLULU - Stanford's run at a fifth NCAA women's volleyball championship was stopped by top-ranked Penn State as the Nittany Lions topped the Cardinal 15-2, 15-10, 15-7 to win their first NCAA title. The second-place finish for Stanford is its fourth in school history and snapped a four-match win streak in national championship matches that Stanford had compiled by winning NCAA titles in 1992, '94, '96 and '97. Stanford had previously finished second in 1984, '85 and '87. The Nittany Lions had reached the finals in each of the last two seasons before falling to Stanford in 1997 and Long Beach State last year. Penn State finishes its season with a 36-1 record, winning 36 straight matches after losing its season-opener. Stanford has its 20-match win streak snapped and finishes the year with a 31-3 mark.

"The match was won in the first game when we had 10 blocks," said victorious Penn State head coach Russ Rose. "We had a great game plan and the players played with a lot of passion and enthusiasm. I think the players put themselves in this situation and handled all the stress that normally comes in a match like this as well as they possibly could."

"You have to give Penn State credit because they played very well," stated Stanford head coach Don Shaw. "However, we didn't give ourselves a chance with the way we played. Penn State must have played well, but I was so busy doing damage control that I won't know just how well they played until I see the tape."

Penn State senior middle hitter and Co-National Player of the Year Lauren Cacciamani was named the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Championships after leading the Nittany Lions with match-highs of 20 kills and eight blocks in tonight's win. Stanford Co-National Player of the Year Kerri Walsh and the Cardinal's Logan Tom were selected as members of the NCAA Championships all-tournament team. Walsh led the Cardinal with 11 kills in her final match of a brilliant college career that included two NCAA titles, three Final Four appearances, four Pac-10 titles and a 122-11 record during her tenure.

However, Penn State dominated tonight's match by holding Stanford to a season-low attack percentage of -.008. The Cardinal committed a season-high 40 errors as Penn State outblocked Stanford (15.0 - 10.5), marking just the fourth time this year the Cardinal has been outblocked by an opponent. Stanford never really got on track as the Nittany Lions led wire-to-wire other than a brief 3-1 Stanford lead in game two.

"Normally, even when we play poorly we usually battle and give ourselves a chance to pull out of it," added Shaw. "We just didn't do that tonight."

"We were missing all night," mentioned Walsh. "We just didn't do anything right."

The match started out poorly for the Cardinal as Penn State scored the first eight points of game one before the Stanford finally got on board when Tom and Jennifer Detmer teamed up to block a Penn State attack attempt. Stanford would score only one more point the entire first game as Penn State rolled to a 15-2 victory. Cacciamani led the Nittany Lions with five kills and four blocks, while Katie Schumacher added three kills and four blocks. Penn State had 10 team blocks in the game, holding Stanford to a season-low single-game attack percentage of -.152 (12-19-46). Walsh led the Cardinal with six kills but also committed five errors. Tom had five errors and just one kill as she hit -.571.

The second game started out better for the Cardinal as Stanford bolted to a quick 3-1 lead. However, Penn State would score the next three points to lead 4-3 and never trailed again. The Cardinal did manage to tie the game three times after that point with the final tie coming at 6-6. The Nittany Lions then unleashed a fierce rally and scored the next six points to take a commanding 12-6 lead as Stanford gave up four of the points on attack errors during the run. Stanford did mount a mini-comeback to cut the score to 13-10 on a kill by Lindsey Yamasaki. A solo block by Cacciamani returned the serve to the Nittany Lions before block assists by Mishka Levy and Carrie Schonveld gave the Nittany Lions game point. Penn State wrapped up the game on its first game point when an attempt by Walsh sailed long. Cacciamani was once again the dominant force for Penn State with eight kills and three blocks in game two. Yamasaki and Tom each had four kills for Stanford.

The Nittany Lions started the third game by scoring the first four points, the final two coming on errors by Walsh. Stanford briefly stayed in the contest with its best stretch of the match, eventually cutting Penn State's lead to 7-6 after back-to-back attack errors by Penn State. However, the Nittany Lions scored the next four points to take a commanding 11-6 lead. Stanford scored the next point on another Penn State attack error before the Nittany Lions closed out the match with four consecutive points, all on Cacciamani's serve.

Nittany Lions hand Cardinal a 15-2, 15-10, 15-7 defeat to pick up first NCAA Championship Most Outstanding Player Lauren Cacciamani knocks down a match-high 20 kills Stanford's Kerri Walsh and Logan Tom selected to all-tournament team