NCAA Volleyball Final Four Featuring a Battle of Coaching Legends

Tonight, the NCAA Div. l Women's Volleyball Final Four will take place at the St. Peterburg Times Forum in St. Petersburg, FL. The semifinalists are Texas, Minnesota, Penn St. and Hawaii.

In this blog, I want to focus on the semifinal match between Penn St. and Hawaii. Penn St. is coming into this match with an undefeated mark of 36-0, while the Lady Rainbow Warriors of Hawaii come in with a 32-2 mark. What is most interesting to me is battle between the coaches. Penn St. Head Coach Russ Rose will earn his 1,000th career victory if the Lady Nittney Lions can win tonight. His counterpart, UH Head Coach
Dave Shoji, already has over 1,000 career wins with a record of 1,016-175 (.852 pct.) record. Rose is currently 999-159 (.863 pct.) in his 31 years at Penn St. Between Rose and Shoji, they have won a combined 7 national championships.

The Lady Nittney Lions have the winningest Senior Class in school history, and maybe in NCAA history. Senior Outside Hitter Megan Hodge is a four time AVCA All-American. Senior Setter Alisha Glass ranks fourth in the NCAA with a 12.02 set assists average. She has an average of 0.89 kills, 466 digs on the season, and an average of 0.85 blocks. Hodge ranks 10th in the nation with an average of 5.23 points, 8th in the country with an average of 4.75 kills, and 8th in the nation with a total of 399 digs. The Nittnery Lions went 38-0 last year on their way to a national title, defeating Stanford in the championship 3 games to 0. If they win tonight and then win the title against either Texas or fellow Big 10 foe Minnesota, they will have gone 76-0 winning two straight national titles without even 1 loss: Absolutely incredible!

Dave Shoji's Lady Rainbow Warriors will try to derail that streak and they will do it with players like Sophomore Outside Hitter Kanani Danielson. Danielson was named First Team All-American this year and was a Third Team All-American selection a year ago as a Freshman. Danielson ranks 29th in the country with a 4.25 kill average. Senior OH Senior Aneli Cubi-Otineru earned Third Team All-America honors this year, having posted an average of 3.88 points, 3.08 kills, .301 aces average (11th in NCAA), and a 2.53 digs average. Senior Middle Hitter Amber Kaufman is ranked 4th in the nation in number of kills (436), an o.38 ace average and an 0.79 block average.

I'm not by any means discounting the successes of Texas and Minnesota, but the coach and player fire power on both of these squads is tremendous. Most likely, the winner of this match will go on to win the 2009 National Title. That's my opinion, and I welcome yours. More info on this article can be obtained at www.ncaachampionships.com.