After finishing what turned out to be her final collegiate swing, Nicole Fawcett and her teammates looked over to the official to make sure it was a kill.
Seconds later, it was called a point for Penn State and there was soon a dogpile on the court.
"What was going through my head was, 'They better call the touch'," Fawcett said at Saturday's post-conference press conference. "At the time, it seemed like eternity, but Megan [Hodge] was already celebrating the point."
The Penn State women's volleyball team finished undefeated and won its second straight national championship with a 3-0 sweep (25-20, 26-24, 25-23) of Stanford Saturday night at the Qwest Center in Omaha, Neb.
"You couldn't ask for anything better," Fawcett later said that night in a phone interview.
The national championship is the third in program history, with 1999 joining the last two seasons. Penn State (38-0) is the first team to win consecutive national titles since Southern California did it in 2002-03, with the 2003 one resulting in what was the last unbeaten season at the time. The win total is also the most for a champion since Pacific won 39 matches in 1986.
Despite hitting a season-low .177, the Lions still outhit Stanford's .142. With the loss, the Cardinal (31-4) has been defeated in three straight championship matches.
After erasing an early 14-8 deficit in the first set, Penn State went on a 9-2 run to take the lead for good.
And in that set and in the second, Stanford coach John Dunning said the service game was the difference.
Despite outhitting the Lions .159 to .102 in the middle set, the Cardinal struggled receiving Penn State's serves and with its own service game. Through the first two sets, the Lions had five service aces -- by five different players -- and Stanford committed five service errors.
"Stanford has great players," Alisha Glass said. "It was just playing our own game and winning the serve and pass game."
Senior libero Roberta Holehouse, who was one of the players with an ace, said serving aggressively was what the team talked about the entire season. So whenever she got ready to send the ball over to the Cardinal, she had the mindset to serve as tough as possible.
The third set saw Penn State jump out to an early lead and keep it, as it never trailed. Although the Cardinal cut the late five-point deficit down to one a couple of times late, kills by Megan Hodge, the Tournament's Most Outstanding Player, and Fawcett offset kills by Alix Klineman.
Three players hit at least .300 for Penn State, with Hodge notching a match-high 16 kills and Blair Brown hitting .333 with nine kills.
Despite questions regarding his team's legacy and placement among the best of all-time, Penn State coach Russ Rose was instead focused on the accomplishment of winning the national title again.
"They kept working hard and listening to me telling them what their potential was," Rose said. "Other people can talk about those things ... Other people will have more opinions. These guys know what they did -- they will have that the rest of their lives."
