Women's Volleyball Success Should be Relished

Perhaps it’s fitting that in 2014 I knew, and I mean I KNEW, that Penn State women’s volleyball was going to win the National Championship before the match was even played. As defending National Champions and winners of five of the previous seven titles, the Nittany Lions were facing an unseeded BYU team in the final. That BYU team has just upset a Texas team in the Final Four that was seeded higher than Penn State, but it didn’t matter. I KNEW Penn State was going to win.

There isn’t a twist to this story. Penn State swept the match and only one set was particularly close. For the sixth time in eight seasons, the Penn State Nittany Lions women’s volleyball team were the National Champions!

Why was I so confident? Sure, Penn State were the heavy favorites, but that BYU team, seeded or not, was as hot as anyone in the country and had just beaten Nebraska and Texas to reach the title match. I’d been watching sports for most of my 26 years of life and I knew how unpredictable they were and how often the crazy and unexpected happens. So how did I know Penn State was going to win?