Volleyball Championships

With Pepperdine's Paul Carroll on a scoring blitz near the end of the third game, Penn State's Matt Anderson and his teammates decided enough was enough. The Nittany Lions blocked Carroll's next two kill attempts and, with that game saved and the momentum regained, Penn State went on to beat Pepperdine and win the NCAA Division I men's volleyball championship Saturday.

Jonathan Winder heard the pop as soon as he hit the floor. His first thought: a torn anterior cruciate ligament -- season over. That was December. Today, fully recovered from a cracked tibia that kept him out only five weeks, Winder will lead Pepperdine into a national semifinal match against Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne in college volleyball's Final Four at Columbus, Ohio. "I wasn't sure I was going to play again this season, let alone play in the Final Four," Winder said.

Win or else. That's the state of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation men's volleyball tournament, where upsets Thursday at UC Irvine set the stage for a winner-take-all conference final. The winner goes to the NCAA Division I Final Four played at Penn State, the loser probably goes home, with the lone at-large playoff berth probably going to a semifinal loser. Conference champion UC Irvine, ranked No.

As the men's volleyball coaches in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation gathered after last year's conference tournament, Pepperdine's Marv Dunphy planned on changes. Dunphy didn't foresee his Waves being the beneficiary in 2005. As the regular-season champion, Pepperdine will play host to the MPSF semifinals and championship match that will determine the league's automatic entrant into next week's NCAA Final Four at UCLA.

Pepperdine hasn't won an NCAA men's volleyball championship since 1992 despite having repeated chances. It will have another chance next week. Playing with precision and staying unflappable, the Waves defeated Long Beach State, 31-29, 30-21, 30-27, to win the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation title Saturday night in front of 2,107 at Firestone Fieldhouse. Pepperdine (23-2) advanced to the NCAA national semifinals for the fourth time in six years.

UCLA provided an emphatic answer to questions about its selection as the at-large team in the NCAA men's volleyball semifinals. The Bruins defeated Penn State, 30-20, 30-24, 30-27, Thursday night before 5,125 at Pauley Pavilion. On Saturday, they'll try for their 19th NCAA title and first in five years, but they will have to go through top-seeded Pepperdine, which defeated Ohio State, 30-16, 31-29, 30-26, in the other semifinal.

Brigham Young rallied to win its third NCAA men's volleyball title in five years, defeating Long Beach State in five games Saturday night. Top-seeded BYU (29-4) overcame three 49ers' championship points to win, 15-30, 30-18, 20-30, 32-30, 19-17, in a match between the schools that played for the 1999 championship, won by the Cougars. After 49er hitter Scott Touzinsky hit into the antenna, the Cougars spilled onto the court to celebrate, holding up the NCAA trophy.

You could say that Keao Burdine has volleyball etched into her DNA, and it wouldn't be far from the truth. "She was bouncing around in me when I was playing," said her mother, Pam. "And I played late into my pregnancy. At least seven or eight months in." Volleyball is life for USC's standout outside hitter -- and also the rest of the Burdine clan.

All things must pass, and for the USC women's volleyball team, a dynastic run had to come to an end at some point. The Trojans were trying to become the first Division I program to win three consecutive NCAA titles. But they ran into a Minnesota team intent on making some history of its own.

In four years at Stanford, Ogonna Nnamani has built a volleyball portfolio that no one currently in the college game can match. Nnamani has already won an NCAA championship and been honored as an All-American three times. The Normal, Ill., native also competed in the Olympics this summer, beginning what may be a long career with the U.S. national indoor team. Her career in college volleyball will come to an end in today's national championship match against Minnesota at the Long Beach Arena.