Gainesville, FL. December 12, 2009

Penn State’s consecutive match winning streak reached the century mark this afternoon, as the Nittany Lions dispatched the California Golden Bears, 25-18, 25-17, 25-22 in a steady, if not flashy, performance to move on the the Final Four next week. In their semi-final match, Penn State will face either Big Ten foe Michigan, which took them to five sets in Ann Arbor, or the Rainbow Wahine of Hawaii.

As usual, Penn State was led by Sr. OH Megan Hodge (14 kills, .429 hitting) and Sr. Setter Alisha Glass (whom the announcers mentioned as a solid candidate for NPOY), with Jr. Opp. Blair Brown (13 kills, .375 hitting — the announcers love Blair Brown), Jr. L. Alyssa D’Errico (5 service aces, including 3 in a row in the first set, when she helped Penn State run off 7 straight points), Jr. MH Arielle Wilson (5 kills, .625 hitting), and Jr. DS Cathy Quilico also turning in solid performances.

But our favorite moment was the service ace by Kelsey Ream. What a gutsy recovery she made from her surgery.

My favorite quotes from the article: Russ Rose: “I feel bad going up against Cal every year.“ and Arielle Wilson: “Our fans are incredible. They came to Florida and [go] wherever we‘re playing. It‘s amazing.”

Updated 2-15-2025: The Streak

During “The Streak, Penn State Women’s Volleyball racked up the following mind-boggling “consecutives”:

• from September 21, 2007 to September 10, 2010: 109 consecutive victories, an NCAA record 55 consecutive road match wins, and three consecutive NCAA Championships; and
• from the final set of the 2007 National Championship match against Stanford to the third set of the 2008 NCAA National Semifinal match against Nebraska, an NCAA record 111 straght won sets.

It was an accomplishment worthy of so many supurlatives, but probably best left simply as “The Streak”: