Oregon makes its first ever appearance in a Final Four against number one overall seed Penn State with first serve set for 6:00 p.m. on ESPN2. The Ducks met the Nittany Lions last season and came away with the upset, ending Penn State’s 94 match home win streak.
Penn State won a very competitive first set 25-21, outblocking the Ducks 6-0 in the process and shutting down one of the Ducks go-to attacks in the slide to Ariana Williams. Oregon kept it close though, never trailing by more than four and tying the set a dozen times with a few one-point leads of their own mixed in.
Oregon started the second set off strong and jumped out to a five point lead, the largest of the match to that point, and continued to build on that lead.  The Ducks led by as many as ten when they reached the 2o point mark, but Penn State scored seven straight points before Alaina Bergsma finally notched a kill, but the Penn State block continued to pose problems for the Ducks and Penn State fought all the way back to tie the set at 24 forcing it to go beyond regulation points before the Ducks finally closed the set 30-28.
Out of the intermission both teams came out strong with neither squad able to take control, but the Ducks went on a run to open up a three point lead midway through the set and held onto the lead until Penn State tied the set at 19, but Oregon rallied ahead to take the set 25-22.
Playing one set away from a national championship, Oregon came out playing inspired volleyball and jumped out to a 9-3 lead forcing PSU to take a timeout. PSU chipped away at the lead but the Ducks went on another 6-1 run to take a 15-7 lead forcing PSU to use its last timeout, but the Ducks wouldn’t look back en route to a 3-1 win.
Oregon will play Texas in the national championship game on Saturday night.