Blue White Illustrated

VARSITY VIEWS THE BIG HURT KILLER INSTINCT Scott had a matchhigh 18 kills in the Lions' 3-1 loss. A key injury helps bring an end to PSU's title hopes | enn State's hopes of a sixth national title turned when its star sophomore's ankle did the same. Micha Hancock, possibly the best server and setter in the nation and a key to the Nittany Lions' success in 2012, went down with an injured ankle in the second game of Penn State's national semifinal match against Oregon. With Hancock out briefly and clearly limited when she returned, the top-seeded Lions couldn't overcome an opportunistic flock of Ducks, who advanced to the NCAA title match with a 21-25, 30-28, 2522, 25-19 victory. Penn State's 10th final four appearance ended two wins shy of another trophy, and the Lions finished their season with a record of 33-3. The night before the semifinal, Hancock (along with junior Ariel Scott) was named a first-team All-American, and longtime coach Russ Rose wasn't about to downplay the impact of her injury. "We didn't go into the match thinking, 'What are we going to do if Micha gets hurt?' " he said. "Micha never missed a match all year." Still, it was typical of Rose to see that pivotal moment not solely as an excuse, but as a missed chance. "We had an injury that gave us an opportunity for other people to step up, and for us to do a little better job coaching, and I don't think we did a very good job of that," he said after the match. "We had a few opportunities in the second game that we let slip away, and I think we lost a lot of con- P fidence and steam at that point. That, in my mind, was how the game slipped away." There was no hiding the disappointment of falling short for a Penn State team that spent much of the season ranked No. 1 in the nation, and which entered the final four on a roll. The Lions won 27 of 28 matches coming into the national semis, the only loss in that span a five-setter at No. 4 Nebraska. Along the way, they made their 15th Big Ten title look easy, finishing four games ahead of the Cornhuskers and Minnesota, who tied for second in the league. Indeed, all signs going into the Oregon match pointed to a team built in the mold of the squads that Rose led to four consecutive national championships from 2007-10. And it was a far cry from the 2011 team, which finished a fine-for-anybody-else 25-8 and was swept in the round of 16. Rose and his returnees from that squad knew they had fallen well short of the program's standards, and by any measure, 2012 saw a return to Penn State's lofty norm. Well, any measure except the big one, of course. With four All-Americans back next fall – junior Katie Slay earned second-team honors and classmate Deja McClendon was a third-team pick – Penn State will once again have more than sufficient talent to make a title run. Whether the Nittany Lions will have the leadership and the focus – not to mention the luck, the necessity of which Hancock's injury made clear Penn State Athletic Communications – remains to be seen. Mere moments after that semifinal loss, Rose already was putting the challenge to his 2013 team. "If you're gonna like it when you're on top, you've gotta be able to man up when you're not," he said. "Either the players are going to step up and do what they have to do, and we're gonna get better as a staff, or we're gonna look back on an era of Penn State volleyball and say, 'Boy, that was a great era.' " The implication – that he's not ready for that era to end just yet – could not have been more clear.

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