The moment Megan Hodge's kill hit the ground, the junior stomped her right foot down in excitement, tilted her head toward the ceiling in Omaha, Neb., and shouted, "Yes, yes, yes!"

Hodge's 23rd kill of the match finally ended the five-set marathon, as Penn State finished with a 7-1 rally.

Minutes earlier before the late surge, Penn State was faced with a 10-8 Nebraska lead and a sea of red standing on its feet.

The fifth-set deficit came after the Nittany Lions went up 6-3 with four consecutive points. The Cornhuskers then rallied to take a two-point lead, with Tara Mueller posting four kills, including three in a row at one point.

But after a kill by Nicole Fawcett -- her match-high 24th kill of the night -- cut the deficit to one, she then picked up the ball to serve and try to help her team tie and perhaps take the lead.

Fawcett already had two service errors in the match, and the troubles had prompted her to abandon her powerful jump serve and go with a standing floating serve.

The result: Penn State reeled off five straight points to take a 14-10 lead. Fawcett had three kills and an ace in the final set.

"Nicole came back with big swings in the end," Penn State assistant coach Dennis Hohenshelt told the Penn State Sports Network.

In Penn State's rally, Nebraska struggled to get good swings off of Fawcett's serves. The mistakes helped lead to three errors in that span -- a block, an attack error and a mishandled set -- to go along with Fawcett's ace.

The fifth set saw both teams post nine kills, but Nebraska committed three more errors than Penn State and the Lions' block suddenly regained its form. After having only five blocks in the first four sets, Penn State had three in the shorter fifth set.

Nebraska was finally able to end the Lions' six-point run with a kill by Jordan Larson, but the Lions still had match point at 14-11.

The stage was then set for Alisha Glass to serve to Hodge, who rocketed a kill past the Husker defense.

"Megan was a stud tonight," Hohenshelt said.