No. 2 Women's Volleyball Hosts No. 6 Creighton in Regional Final Sunday Night

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- No. 2 Penn State Women's Volleyball hosts No. 6 Creighton in the NCAA Regional Final on Sunday at Rec Hall. The match is scheduled for 8:30 p.m., and will air live on ESPN.

The winner of Sunday's match earns a trip to Louisville, where the National Semifinal and Championship matches will take place at the KFC Yum! Center. The Nittany Lions and Bluejays enter with identical 32-2 records. 

HOW TO FOLLOW
Regional Final | Sunday, Dec. 15
8:30 p.m. | #2 seed Creighton (32-2) vs. #1 seed Penn State (32-2) | Live Stats | ESPN

PARKING
• PARKING INFO - Please see this link for important parking information related to this weekend's event

OPENING NOTES
• Penn State is set to compete in the NCAA Regional Final for the 21st time out of a possible 44 NCAA Tournaments.
• It is the first NCAA Regional Final to be held at Rec Hall since 2017.
• The Nittany Lions are the only program to compete in all 44 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Tournaments.
• Sunday marks Penn State’s first NCAA Regional Final appearance under head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley, who is in her third season as Penn State head coach. The Nittany Lions lost in the Regional Semifinal in each of her first two seasons. It will be the 10th NCAA Tournament match overall with Schumacher-Cawley as head coach. They are 7-2 in the postseason during that time.

PENN STATE NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY
• Penn State, which has won seven national titles, is 113-36 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.
• The Nittany Lions are 72-3 in NCAA Tournament matches played at Rec Hall.
• Penn State has made the National Semifinal 13 times and the National Championship match 10 times.

PENN STATE IN REGIONAL FINAL
• The Nittany Lions are 13-7 all-time in the Regional Final (Round of 8). They have beaten 10 different teams in the round -- BYU (3x), Cal (2x), Duke, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Stanford, UCLA, and Wisconsin.
• Penn State will play in the Regional Final for the first time since 2019, when it lost at Stanford in that round for the second-straight year. The Nittany Lions’ last win in the Regional Final came over Michigan State in 2017.

SERIES HISTORY
• Penn State and Creighton have never played each other.

HOW THEY GOT HERE - PENN STATE
• Penn State earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament after going 29-2 overall and 19-1 in the Big Ten on its way to its first conference title since 2017.
• The Nittany Lions received one of the four top seeds and the right to host their matches through the Regional Final.
• In the opening weekend of the tournament, Penn State started with a 3-0 sweep of MEAC champion Delaware State and followed that with a 3-1 win over North Carolina behind 21 kills from Jess Mruzik.
• Penn State upped its record to 32-2 with a 3-1 win over Marquette in the NCAA Regional Semifinal on Friday. Camryn Hannah hit .476 with 24 kills, while Jess Mruzik recorded a double-double with 20 kills and 13 digs.

HOW THEY GOT HERE - CREIGHTON
• Creighton earned the automatic bid out of the Big East after winning both the regular season and conference tournament titles. The Bluejays went 29-2 overall and 18-0 in the conference prior to the NCAA Tournament.
• The Bluejays, the two seed in the State College Regional, opened the tournament with a sweep over South Dakota in the NCAA First Round and a sweep over Ole Miss in the NCAA Second Round. Setter Kendra Wait hit .889 with eight kills, 35 assists, and eight digs in the win over the Rebels.
• Creighton upped its record to 32-2 with a 3-1 win over third-seeded Texas in the NCAA Regional Semifinal on Friday.
• Kendra Wait was both the Player of the Year and the Setter of the Year in the Big East. She was joined on the all-conference team by senior libero Maddy Bilinovic, senior middle hitter Elise Goetzinger, junior outside hitter Ava Martin, senior middle hitter Kiara Reinhardt, and senior outside hitter Norah Sis.
• Creighton enters the Regional Final with a 25-match winning streak. The Bluejays last loss came to No. 4 Louisville in five sets on Sept. 15.

PENN STATE VS. BIG EAST
• Penn State is 68-6 all-time against current members of the Big East.|• The Nittany Lions have played eight of the 11 teams in the conference and have a winning record against all eight of them. They are unbeaten against six Big East opponents, going a combined 38-0 against DePaul, Marquette, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall, and Villanova.

STREAKS TO WATCH
Ava Falduto
· 4 straight matches with at least one ace

Gillian Grimes
· 7 straight matches with double-digit digs

Camryn Hannah
· 16 straight matches with double-digit kills

Jess Mruzik
· 8 straight matches with double-digit kills

Team
· 23 straight wins at Rec Hall

REC HALL SUCCESS
• Penn State is 728-55 (.930) all-time at Rec Hall.
• The Nittany Lions are 347-38 (.901) against current Big Ten opponents and 381-17 (.957) against non-conference opponents.
• Penn State is 72-3 all-time in NCAA Tournament matches at Rec Hall.

REC HALL STREAK
• The Nittany Lions take a lengthy Rec Hall winning streak into the NCAA Tournament, winning 23 straight at home dating back to last season. The Nittany Lions’ last home loss came to Nebraska on Nov. 3, 2023.
• Included in that win streak are six wins over teams that were nationally-ranked at the time of the match -- No. 2 Wisconsin last season and No. 4 Louisville, No. 11 Oregon, No. 14 Minnesota, No. 8 Purdue, and No. 2 Nebraska this season.

UP NEXT
• The National Semifinal and Championship matches will be held at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky on Thursday, Dec. 19 and Sunday, Dec. 22.