UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania – No. 2 Penn State Women’s Volleyball is in the national semifinals for the first time since 2017, meeting at the KFC Yum! in Louisville at No. 3 Nebraska. Center on Thursday. The game will begin 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first semifinal and will be broadcast live on ESPN

The winner of Thursday’s game advances to the National Championship, where they will face the winner of No. 1 Pitt and No. 4 Louisville on Sunday at 3 p.m. This game will be broadcast live on ABC.

HOW TO FOLLOW
National semi-final | Thursday, December 19th | 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first semi-final
#1 seed Nebraska (33-2) vs. #1 seed Penn State (33-2) | Live Stats | ESPN

OPENING NOTES
• Penn State is scheduled to appear in the NCAA semifinals for the 14th time out of 44 possible NCAA tournaments.
• This is the Nittany Lions’ first appearance in the NCAA semifinals since 2017.
• The Nittany Lions are the only club to compete in all 44 NCAA Division I women’s volleyball tournaments.
• On Thursday, Penn State will appear in the NCAA national semifinals 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 11th NCAA Tournament game overall with Schumacher-Cawley as head coach. During that time, they are 8-2 in the postseason.

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 have a 73-3 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 NATIONAL SEMIFINALS
• The Nittany Lions are 10-3 all-time in the national semifinals. They beat nine different teams in the round – Nebraska (2x), BYU, Cal, Florida, Hawaii, Pacific, Stanford, Texas and Washington.
• Penn State will play in the national semifinals for the first time since 2017, when it lost to Nebraska in five sets in Kansas City.
• The Nittany Lions are 2-1 against Nebraska in the national semifinals, winning in 1998 and 2008.

HISTORY OF THE SERIES
• Penn State is 12-28 in the all-time series with Nebraska. The teams first played in 1981.
• The Nittany Lions won the last game between the teams 3-1 at Rec Hall on Nov. 29 this season. Redshirt freshman Caroline Jurevicius had her best match of the season with the win, hitting .414 with 18 kills and two blocks. Jess Mruzik had a double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs while Izzy Starck had a double-double with 46 assists and 11 digs. Maggie Mendelson contributed eight kills and six blocks.
• Penn State is 3-8 against Nebraska in the NCAA Tournament. The Huskers won their last postseason matchup 3-2 in 2017. This game was played at the Sprint Center in Kansas, City, Missouri.

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 opening weekend of the tournament with a 3-0 win over MEAC champion Delaware State and followed it with a 3-1 win over North Carolina on 21 kills Jess Mruzik.
• Penn State increased its record to 33-2 with a 3-1 win over Marquette in the NCAA regional semifinals and a 3-2 win over sixth-seeded Creighton in the NCAA regional final. Camryn Hannah Hit .476 with 24 kills while Jess Mruzik recorded a double-double with 20 kills and 13 digs against the Golden Eagles. Mruzik had 20 kills, eight digs and four blocks Caroline Jurevicius Added 11 kills and Gillian Grimes contributed 17 digs in the win over the Bluejays.

HOW TO GET HERE – NEBRASKA
• Nebraska received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament after sharing the Big Ten title with Penn State but losing Automatic bid tiebreaker due to head-to-head loss. The Cornhuskers went 29-2 overall in the regular season and 19-1 in the conference.
• The Huskers, the No. 2 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, opened the postseason with back-to-back wins over Florida A&M and Miami in the first and second rounds.
• Nebraska then increased its record to 33-2 overall with a 3-1 win over 23rd-seeded Dayton in the regional semifinals and a win over seventh-seeded Wisconsin in the regional final. Andi Jackson hit .474 with 10 kills and five blocks in the win over the Badgers. Lexi Rodriguez led all players with 17 digs.
• The Huskers reached the national championship game last season, where they lost in three sets to Texas.

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

Gillian Grimes
· 8 direct matches with double-digit payouts

Camryn Hannah
· 3 games in a row with at least one ace

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

NEXT
• The winner of Thursday’s game advances to Sunday’s national championship, where Penn State would seek its eighth national title and Nebraska would seek its sixth.