Glass plays key role as Penn St. wins NCAA title.

The Penn State University women’s volleyball team won its second consecutive NCAA Division I championship on Saturday in Omaha, Neb., and once again Leland’s Alisha Glass played a leading role.

The Nittany Lions set a new record in the NCAA for consecutive match wins (64) and consecutive set wins (111) before dropping two against Nebraska in a semifinal match Friday night. Penn ALISHA GLASS (6) and her teammates celebrate Penn State’s second consecutive NCAA volleyball championship.State still advanced to the finals with a 25-20, 25-18, 15-25, 22-25, 15-11 win over the Cornhuskers to face Stanford, the same team they played in 2007 to win the national championship. The Cardinals again proved to be a tough opponent, but the Nittany Lions sent them packing in a hard-fought three-set match, 25-20, 26-24, 25-23.
In the middle of the Penn State victory parade is Glass, a junior and one four Penn State players named first team All-American by the American Volleyball Coaches Association. Glass, seniors Nicole Fawcett and Christa Harmoto, and junior Megan Hodge earned the top honors, while sophomores Blair Brown and Arielle Wilson were second team selections. Fawcett was also named the Division I Player of the Year by the coaches association, with Penn State coach Russ Rose earning coach of the year honors as well.
While Glass is excited about the consecutive wins, the second national title and being recognized by the media and coaches as one of the best players in the country, she said the number that stands out for her is .390. That was her team’s hitting average for the season.
As the setter for the Nittany Lions, Glass averaged 12.5 assists per game, the best in the nation.
“Having that kind of hitting average, it just shows I have good people to set to,” Glass said.
For the season Penn State’s hitters had averages of .349 or better, including Harmotto (.486), Wilson (.458), Brown (.426), Fawcett (.358) and Hodge (.349). With Harmotto, Fawcett and libero Roberta Holehouse graduating in the spring, Glass said her team will lose three great players.
“Christa and Nicole get a lot of the attention because of where they play, but Roberta is our defense. Against Nebraska she really was key in our late run in the final set. Losing our libero, middle blocker and Nicole on the outside, they will be tough to replace as friends and players,” she said.
For the season Glass had 64 kills, 1,450 assists, averaging 12.5 a game, 212 digs and 114 blocks. Against Nebraska she had 60 assists, 10 digs, 4 blocks and against Stanford she had 40 assists, 2 blocks, 9 digs.
Glass said playing Nebraska on the sold-out Qwest Center in Omaha was one of the toughest challenges her team faced all year. Penn State jumped out to 2-0 set lead and looked like it might sweep the Cornhuskers when Nebraska started connecting and Penn State’s passing broke down.
“It was a combination of things. They started swinging better and our passing disappeared,” Glass said. Plus, the semifinal matches between Texas and Stanford and Penn State and Nebraska were played before a record-breaking crowd of 17,400 – mostly Nebraska fans.
“Their crowd had a lot to do with their two wins. If Nebraska was down, their crowd would stand up, all 17,000 of them and just start cheering, making noise. That is big, to have 17,000 standing on their feet making that much noise, it was so loud on the court you couldn’t hear anything your team mates were saying,” Glass said. “We’ve played before some big crowds before, but nothing like that.”
When it came down to the final set, the tiebreaker, the Cornhuskers had a 10-8 lead and in rally scoring getting to 15 can be all about momentum. But, Penn State rallied back on a 4-0 scoring run and never gave up the lead.
Part of the Nittany Lions’ win in the tie breaker was aided by two big blocks by Glass in the later part of the set. When asked about them right after the match, Glass said she couldn’t remember what happened.
“There is so much adrenalin pumping through you during the final set and things happen so fast you don’t always remember what happened with individual points,” she said.
Now, she said she does remember the block.
In the championship match against Stanford, the Cardinal took an early lead in the first set but Penn State fought back for a 25-20. The Nittany Lions took the lead in the second match and then hung before winning, 26-24. Glass said that in the locker room before the third set, all the players were thinking about was Thursday night’s match against Nebraska and a the Texas-Stanford  match. Texas had a two-set advantage in the first semifinal when Stanford came back and won three straight to take the match.
“We all knew that Stanford was experienced and we had all watched what they did against Texas. No one wanted to go to a tiebreaker with them, so we talked about just going out and winning it in the third,” she said. From there Penn State went on to win the set, the match and the championship.
For Glass the celebration was equally important as her mom, Laurie, and most of her extended family and friends from Leland were in the stands to watch her and her team win the title again. She came home with her family on Sunday and was in Leland and Traverse City, where she was recognized almost immediately.
“Everywhere I went in Leland, Traverse City, I had so many people come up to me and say they watched the match and how exciting it was. It is really awesome that so many people who may not have watched a volleyball match before watched this one. I hope we made some new fans,” she said.
Glass has also received plenty of media attention, and was featured in team introductions before the semifinal and championship matches. Glass said each player filled out a questionnaire from ESPN.
“I guess they liked my answers because they filmed myself and Christa reading our answers to some of the questions. The one they liked best, ‘I’m Alisha Glass and my hometown has no traffic lights” was chosen. It was a lot of fun,” she said.
Glass and Penn State are poised to make another playoff run next year with herself, Hodge, Wilson and Blair Brown expected to provide the offensive firepower. For now, though, Glass said she’s going to relax and enjoy the holidays with family and friends.