10,792 See A Smashing Success Zemaitis’ Zest Clinches Mvp
Penn State’s Terri Zemaitis not only impressed the Arena crowd Saturday, she also won over the voters for the all-tournament team. Despite her team’s 3-2 loss in the NCAA Volleyball Championship final, Zemaitis was named most valuable player.
The 6-foot-2 senior middle blocker put up 25 kills (.345 hitting), 25 digs and five block assists against Stanford. Zemaitis opened the tournament with 14 kills (.310) and 10 digs in Penn State’s win over Florida.
Zemaitis didn’t learn about her MVP award until several minutes after the postgame ceremony. After accepting the second-place trophy, the Nittany Lions headed for their dressing room.
Teammates Carrie Schonveld and Lauren Cacciamani joined Zemaitis on the all-tournament team, along with Stanford’s Kristin Folkl, Paula McNamee and Lisa Sharpley.
Marlowe’s impressed
ESPN2 volleyball broadcaster Chris Marlowe called the fourth game of the championship match “one of the greatest games I’ve ever watched in all my years of watching college volleyball.”
As for the anti-climatic, rally-scoring finish, where every serve results in a point, Marlowe said, “I like the rally point. Usually rally point is more exciting than the traditional games. Rally point can be really thrilling because each team could have championship point.”
Despite the outcome, Penn State coach Russ Rose also is in favor of the sudden-death-type finish.
“Rally scoring makes it exciting, especially in a match like that where we were bad for so long and then we started playing well. I wanted it to end quickly. I don’t think it has much of an effect on who would be the true winner,” Rose said.
All I want for Christmas …
More than 10,000 people showed up for a volleyball match at the Spokane Arena and a hockey game broke out.
Or so it appeared when Penn State’s Christy Cochran lost a bicuspid five points into the first game.
It happened in a collision with Zemaitis during an exchange that ended with a freight-train kill by Folkl. Some thought the ball had knocked the tooth out, but the spike actually hit Zemaitis, who was distracted after elbowing Cochran, flush in the face.
“I just want to say that I did not knock her tooth out,” Folkl protested. “Somebody came up and asked, ‘Have you ever done that before?’ They ran into each other right? So I don’t have to add that to my list.”
Penn State coach Russ Rose removed Cochran briefly.
“When I took her out, she said, ‘What, you don’t like a girl wiff no toof?”’ he said. “It was a pretty critical situation, but she still had her sense of humor out there.”
We know Stanford can win on it
The sharp-looking crimson and gray Sportcourt will find a permanent home in Pullman. The court already has the words “Washington State” stenciled onto the end zones.
WSU purchased the court for $30,000 and will use it in Beasley Coliseum. The volleyball team will play there during the upcoming renovation of Bohler Gym, which is projected to take up to 33 months.
After that, the Cougs, along with their new court, will return to their comfortable home in Bohler.
The happy totals
The two-day attendance was 21,086 - just 29 shy of the NCAA record set four years ago in Madison, Wis., which will play host to next year’s finals in a new, 16,000-seat arena.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo