Oregon tops No. 1 Penn State in NCAA volleyball semis

• After dropping the opening set, Oregon rallied back against No. 1 Penn State, winning three in a row
• All-America setter Lauren Plum, who had 51 assists, scored the winning point, going over on two
• The Ducks also beat Penn State in the 2011 season opener to snap their 94-match home winning streak

LOUISVILLE — The top-ranked Penn State volleyball team packed a lot of firepower. Oregon said, bring it on.

Haley Jacob had 20 digs and three other players had at least 12 as the fifth-seeded Ducks stopped the mighty Nittany Lions in four sets in the NCAA Division I volleyball Final Four on Friday night at the KFC Yum! Center.

After losing the first set, Oregon rallied back to win three in a row, 21-25, 30-28, 25-22, 25-19.

Oregon (30-4), which is in the Final Four for the first time, will play for the national title on Saturday against No. 3 Texas, which defeated Michigan in the first semifinal, 25-11, 21-25, 23-25, 25-12, 15-11.

The Ducks, which beat Penn State in the 2011 season opener to snap the Nittany Lions' 94-match home winning streak, shocked Penn State (33-3) again with a gutsy performance in a highly competitive match.

"Penn State is awesome," Oregon coach Jim Moore said. "I have no idea how we won that match because they're really good. But these are tough kids (on Oregon)."

This time, the Ducks ended the Nittany Lions' bid to win their fifth national title in six years.

All-America setter Lauren Plum, who had 51 assists and nine digs, dropped a quick second touch over the net for the winning point.

After losing the first set, Oregon jumped ahead 20-10 in the second before seeing Penn State rally from a 20-10 deficit to take a 27-26 lead. But the Ducks didn't relent and closed it out on a kill by Liz Brenner, who led Oregon with 17 kills.

"We got up by a lot, then relaxed a little bit, … but that was really clutch for us to go into the locker room like that," said Oregon's Alaina Bergsma, who had 16 kills and 15 digs.

Penn State coach Russ Rose said the Nittany Lions lost steam when they failed to complete the second-set rally, and Penn State was slowed by an injury to star setter and server Micha Hancock, who turned her left ankle.

Oregon led 19-16 in the third but Penn State rallied to tie the game at 19 and again at 21. A bad set from Penn State's Dominique Gonzalez gave Oregon the go-ahead point before Katherine Fischer (16 kills) added two kills for a 24-22 lead and the eventual set win.

Ariel Scott had 18 kills and Deja McClendon had 14 for Penn State, which won four consecutive titles from 2007 to 2010.

Steve Jones also writes for The (Louisville) Courier-Journal