The question was asked many times before the women's volleyball team played its first match of the 1994 regular season. How would this team compare with the 1993 team which finished as the national runner-up?

The answer came on Dec. 15 when the No. 5 Lady Lions lost a national semifinal match to No. 3 UCLA in five games (15-3, 5-15, 12-15, 15-5, 12-15). UCLA later lost in the finals to Stanford. Like the squad last year, Penn State reached the Final Four -- but the 1994 squad could not take the next step to the championship match.

After sweeping Notre Dame (15-4, 15-6, 15-2) in the regional semifinals and defeating No. 1 Nebraska (12-15, 15-11, 15-9, 15-8) in the regional final, Penn State (31-4) traveled to Austin, Texas to face UCLA. Although the Lady Lions downed the Bruins in four games in September, they could not defeat the Californians again.

"I think we were disappointed in our level of play," junior setter/hitter Andrea Boner said. "We could have played a lot better, and UCLA could have played better, too. But they played well enough to beat us. Volleyball is a sport where any team can beat anyone if they play well."

In the eyes of Coach Russ Rose, many factors impacted the match -- including travel and final exams. The pressure of final exams made it tough for his team to focus totally on the Bruins during practice, Rose said. The team traveled back to University Park from Lincoln, Neb., all day on Dec. 11. The Lady Lions turned around two days later to go to Austin.

In the match, errors and a knee injury to middle hitter Terri Zemaitis in the fourth game contributed to the Lady Lions' loss.

"In the third game, we made some mistakes," Rose said. "But we won the fourth game 15-5. Zemaitis went down when she was starting to get into an offensive rhythm. We were tied 7-7 in the fifth game, then we made three or four mistakes . . . it was just not meant to be."

When facing Nebraska (31-1), Penn State needed to overcome three huge Cornhusker advantages. One, the Cornhuskers were on a roll having won all of their regular season matches and two tournament matches. Two, Nebraska was playing on its homecourt in front of its hometown fans. And three, the 'Huskers were ranked No. 1 in the final regular season AVCA poll.

"We weren't expected to beat Nebraska," Boner said. "They were the No. 1 team in the nation and they were playing on their homecourt. We all came together at the right time in Nebraska -- we were focused. (After the match) we were excited -- we were just excited to go to Texas."

The Lady Lions were focused enough to overcome these disadvantages and beat the 'Huskers. All 83 of Penn State's kills came from its six starters: Zemaitis 17, Laura Cook 16, Zeynep Ton 15, Saundi Lamoureux 14, Jen Reimers 11, Salima Davidson 10. Reimers contributed a team-high of 26 digs, while Zemaitis had five blocks and a .483 hitting percentage.

The Lady Lions used another fine team effort to sweep Notre Dame (33-4). Cook led the way with 16 kills and 14 digs as Penn State committed only four errors and hit .369 as a team. Factor in Notre Dame's .066 hitting percentage and 27 errors, and it's easy to see why the Irish went home.

"It was a tough match," Zemaitis said. "Everyone who played, played well and we dug a lot of balls. We played like Penn State should have played all year."

Note:

-- At the Final Four, Lady Lion senior setter Davidson was named to the NCAA all-tournament team.