No. 2 Women’s Volleyball Squares Off with No. 3 Nebraska in National Semifinal Thursday – Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- No. 2 Penn State Women’s Volleyball is back in the National Semifinal for the first time since 2017 as it takes on No. 3 Nebraska at Louisville’s KFC Yum! Center on Thursday. The match will start 30 minutes following the completion of the first semifinal and will air live on ESPN>

The winner of Thursday’s match advances to the National Championship, where it will take on the winner between No. 1 Pitt and No. 4 Louisville on Sunday at 3 p.m. That match will air live on ABC.

HOW TO FOLLOW
National Semifinal | Thursday, Dec. 19 | 30 minutes following the completion of the first semifinal
#1 seed Nebraska (33-2) vs. #1 seed Penn State (33-2) | Live Stats | ESPN

OPENING NOTES
• Penn State is set to compete in the NCAA National Semifinal for the 14th time out of a possible 44 NCAA Tournaments.
• It is the Nittany Lions’ first NCAA National Semifinal appearance since 2017.
• The Nittany Lions are the only program to compete in all 44 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Tournaments.
• Thursday marks Penn State’s first NCAA National Semifinal appearance under head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley, who is in her third season as Penn State head coach. The Nittany Lions lost in the Regional Semifinal in each of her first two seasons. It will be the 11th NCAA Tournament match overall with Schumacher-Cawley as head coach. They are 8-2 in the postseason during that time.

PENN STATE NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY
• Penn State, which has won seven national titles, is 114-36 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.
• The Nittany Lions are 73-3 in NCAA Tournament matches played at Rec Hall.
• Penn State has made the National Semifinal 13 times and the National Championship match 10 times.

PENN STATE IN NATIONAL SEMIFINAL
• The Nittany Lions are 10-3 all-time in the National Semifinal. They have beaten nine different teams in the round — Nebraska (2x), BYU, Cal, Florida, Hawaii, Pacific, Stanford, Texas, and Washington.
• Penn State will play in the National Semifinal for the first time since 2017 when it lost in five sets to Nebraska   in Kansas City.
• The Nittany Lions are 2-1 against Nebraska in the National Semifinal, winning in 1998 and 2008.

SERIES HISTORY
• Penn State is 12-28 in the all-time series with Nebraska. The teams first played in 1981.
• The Nittany Lions won the most recent matchup between the teams 3-1 at Rec Hall on Nov. 29 of this season. Redshirt freshman Caroline Jurevicius had her best match of the season in the win, hitting…