No. 2 women’s volleyball team hosts No. 6 Creighton in Sunday night’s regional final – Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania – No. 2 Penn State Women’s Volleyball hosts No. 6 Creighton in the NCAA regional final on Sunday at Rec Hall. The game is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ESPN.

The winner of Sunday’s game will receive a trip to Louisville, where the national semifinals and championship games will be played at the KFC Yum! will take place. Center. The Nittany Lions and Bluejays enter with identical 32-2 records.

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

PARK
• PARKING INFORMATION – Follow this link for important parking information related to this weekend’s event

OPENING NOTES
• Penn State will appear in the NCAA Regional Finals for the 21st time out of 44 possible NCAA Tournaments.
• It will be the first NCAA regional final to be played at Rec Hall since 2017.
• The Nittany Lions are the only club to compete in all 44 NCAA Division I women’s volleyball tournaments.
• On Sunday, Penn State will appear in the NCAA regional final for the first time under head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley, who is in her third season as Penn State’s head coach. The Nittany Lions lost in the regional semifinals in each of their first two seasons. It will be the 10th NCAA Tournament game overall with Schumacher-Cawley as head coach. During that time, they are 7-2 in the postseason.

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 have a 72-3 record in NCAA Tournament games played at Rec Hall.
• Penn State reached the national semifinals 13 times and the national championship game 10 times.

PENN STATE IN THE REGIONAL FINALS
• The Nittany Lions are 13-7 all-time in the regional final (eighth round). They beat 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 this round for the second straight year. The Nittany Lions’ last win in the regional final came over Michigan State in 2017.

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

HOW TO GET 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 en route to its first conference title since 2017.
• The Nittany Lions received a top four seed and the right to host their games through the regional finals.
• Penn State opened the tournament’s opening weekend with a 3-0 win over MEAC champion Delaware State and followed it with a 3-1 victory over North Carolina on 21 kills Jess Mruzik.
• Penn State increased its record to 32-2 with a 3-1 win over Marquette in the NCAA regional semifinals on Friday. Camryn Hannah Hit .476 with 24 kills while Jess Mruzik recorded a double-double with 20 kills and 13 digs.

HOW TO GET HERE – CREIGHTON
• Creighton was automatically eliminated from the Big East after winning both the regular season and conference tournament titles. The Bluejays went 29-2 overall heading into the NCAA Tournament and 18-0 in the conference.
• The Bluejays, the two seeds in the State College Regional, opened the tournament with a win over South Dakota in the first round of the NCAA and a win over Ole Miss in the second round of the NCAA. Setter Kendra Wait hit .889 with eight kills, 35 assists and eight digs in the win over the Rebels.
• Creighton increased its record to 32-2 with a 3-1 victory over third-seeded Texas in the NCAA regional semifinals on Friday.
• Kendra Wait was both the Big East Player of the Year and Setter of the Year. 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 advances to the regional final on a 25-game winning streak. The Bluejays’ last loss came in five sets on Sept. 15 against No. 4 Louisville.

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

STREAKS TO WATCH
Ava Falduto
· 4 games in a row with at least one ace

Gillian Grimes
· 7 direct matches with double-digit payouts

Camryn Hannah
· 16 consecutive matches with double-digit kills

Jess Mruzik
· 8 matches in a row with double-digit kills

team
· 23 straight wins at Rec Hall

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

REC HALL STREAK
• The Nittany Lions are on a long winning streak at Rec Hall in the NCAA Tournament, winning 23 straight at home dating back to last season. The Nittany Lions’ last home loss was on November 3, 2023 at Nebraska.
• That winning streak includes six wins over teams that were nationally ranked at the time of the game – No. 2 Wisconsin last season and No. 4 Louisville, No. 11 Oregon, No. 14 Minnesota, No. 8 Purdue , and No. 2 Nebraska this season.

NEXT
• The national semifinals and championship games will be played at the KFC Yum! carried out. Center in Louisville, Kentucky on Thursday, December 19th and Sunday, December 22nd.