NCAAVB Semi-Finals

I am a huge Penn State fan so when they upset #4 ranked Wisconsin in the Elite 8 I was really excited. In the Final Four they faced #1 ranked Stanford. In my opinion Stanford vs. Penn State should have been the championship match, but they were on the same side of the bracket. I have seen both teams play multiple times and each team has different attributes which makes this semifinal match an interesting one.

            Stanford has an outstanding middle, Inky Ajanaku who has 3.5 kills per set and a .428 hitting efficiency. They also have an incredible outside, Jordan Burgess who has 3.1 kills per set. They also have an awesome setter, Madi Bugg who averages 12.01 assists per set. All of the players on Stanford are studs and I give them props for getting to the semi-finals of the NCAA Tournament, because that is a dream for so many players. Stanford Stats

            Penn State. 2013 National Champs. Graduated 6 seniors last year. Now holds the record (7) for the most National Championships won by any team. Penn State is stacked with talent. Micha Hancock, 5-11 senior setter and my idol. She averages 11.6 assists per set, 1.16 kills per set with a .401 hitting efficiency. She also hold the record for most aces in a season ever with 125 aces, 1.01 per set. She was named the 2014 AVCA D1 Player of the Year. You can see all of her awards and accolades at this link, there are way too many to type out lol. Besides Micha Penn State has a ton of other outstanding players including some freshman. Ali Frantti, freshman outside averages 3.24 kills per set. Megan Courtney, Junior outside averages 2.41 kills per set and was named the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAAVB All-Tournament Team. I’m probably boring you with all of these stats but they are amazing. If you want to look at the rest of Penn States stats and player profiles follow these links.

            In the regular season Stanford beat Penn State in 5 sets, so Penn State was really looking for a rematch I’m guessing. On the other hand Stanford was probably excited when they found out they would play Penn State in the semis because they knew they had already beat them once this year. Penn State won the first set easily, 25-16 but Stanford came back and won the second 25-23. Penn State won the last 2 sets, and now had a shot at winning a National Championship for the second year in a row.

Word Count: 432