UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State women's volleyball team enters the NCAA Tournament on Friday evening as the No. 8 seed in the bracket, hosting Howard, Syracuse and Yale. Penn State is slated to take on Howard at 7:30 p.m. on Friday evening, following the 5:30 p.m. match between Yale and Syracuse. The winners of the two matches will take on each other on Saturday evening at 7 p.m. in Rec Hall.
Penn State vs. Howard
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PARKING
Women's Volleyball fans will have free parking in the Nittany Parking Deck, as well as in the Red A lots off North Atherton Street at White Course Drive. The Rec Hall doors and the ticket office opens at 4:00 p.m. on Friday, and at 5:30 on Saturday.
Howard Deep Dive
Penn State has faced off with the Howard Bison on five previous occasions, three coming in preseason tournaments, and twice coming in the NCAA Tournament. The Nittany Lions are 5-0 vs. the Bison, 4-0 at home, and 1-0 in Washington, D.C. The lone road match against Howard came this season as the two squads faced off on September 14 with the Nittany Lions taking the match, 3-0: 27-25, 25-13, 25-21. Howard got into the NCAA Tournament with a 20-10 record, and a 9-1 MEAC record. They won the MEAC Tournament in three consecutive sweeps of NC Central, Bethune-Cookman, and then of NC A&T State in the MEAC Championship match. Middle blocker Kira Porter was the MEAC Most Outstanding Player. Setter Tamia Dockery was the MEAC Player of the Year and Head Coach Shaun Kupferberg was the MEAC Coach of the Year.
Versus the Sub-regional Field (23-0)
Howard 5-0 2018/–
09/28/79 15-5, 15-4 W N
12/04/15 25-16, 25-8, 25-17 W H
09/17/16 25-16, 25-12, 25-16 W H
12/1/17 25-10, 22-25, 25-15, 25-16 W H
09/14/18 27-25, 25-13, 25-21 W A
Syracuse 8-0 2016/–
11/18/77 15-11, 14-16, 15-13 W N
10/09/82 15-11, 15-5, 15-5 W N
11/15/86 15-4, 15-8, 15-2 W H
11/14/87 15-8, 15-5, 15-4 W H
11/05/88 15-2, 15-8, 15-4 W H
09/12/92 15-6, 15-7, 15-2 W H
08/31/13 25-16, 25-15, 25-17 W H
09/10/16 25-11, 25-10, 25-12 W A
Yale 10-0 2017/–
09/22/78 16-14, 15-13 W N
09/23/78 15-3, 15-7, 15-7 W N
09/22/02 30-15, 30-17, 30-13 W N
09/18/04 30-16, 30-14, 30-11 W H
09/14/07 30-14, 30-14, 30-20 W A
09/19/08 25-7, 25-13, 25-16 W H
12/06/08 25-18, 25-11, 25-12 W H
09/21/13 25-16, 25-17, 25-6 W H
09/13/14 25-14, 25-15, 25-15 W N
09/15/17 25-9, 25-21, 25-11 W H
Eight Seed History
Since 2000 when the NCAA started using the bracket format that is used today, the No. 8 seed has a 46-10 record. Penn State has only been the No. 8 seed in one other tournament, which was 2011, where they won the first and second round matches versus over Liberty and Delaware in University Park, but then went on to fall to UCLA in Lexington, Ky., in three, 25-20, 25-22, 25-21.
Dance, Dance
The Nittany Lions are one of only two NCAA Division I women's volleyball programs to compete in all 37 NCAA Championship postseason tournaments since 1981. In tournament play, the Nittany Lions own a 98-30 all-time record, having made 13 appearances in the final four. Since 2007, Penn State has made more appearances in the NCAA national semifinals than any other program. PSU has participated in nine of the last 11 final fours.
League of His Own
Head coach Russ Rose has been at the helm for all 98 of Penn State's NCAA Tournament wins, giving him the most by any individual coach in NCAA Division I volleyball history. If he were to secure two wins this weekend, he would be the first NCAA DI women's volleyball coach to reach the 100 win mark for NCAA postseason.
Only two other institutions have 100 win entering the 2018 Championships, Stanford leads the pack at 119 wins and Nebraska is second at 109. Both of those institutions have had multiple coaches at the helm.
Team Defense
Penn State leads the Big Ten in blocks per set at 2.86, which is good for eighth in the nation. The Nittany Lions are also killing the floor defense game as well. Penn State is currently averaging 14.98 digs per set, which if the season ended today, would crush the 25-point rally scoring era record of 14.72 which was set in 2010. If Penn State can get to 15.00 or above, it would be the first time since 2005 (15.82) that the Nittany Lions have averaged 15.00 or more per set. As a whole, Penn State's defense is holding opponents to just .168 hitting, good for third in the Big Ten.