NCAA VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS : Scott Leads Long Beach Past Florida

Danielle Scott performed like the national player of the year Thursday, leading the Long Beach State women’s volleyball team to the brink of its first NCAA title since 1989.

Scott hit .538, including 17 kills and three errors, for third-ranked Long Beach in a 15-10, 15-6, 15-3 NCAA semifinal victory over 14th-ranked Florida in the University of Wisconsin Field House.

Long Beach will play Penn State in the NCAA final on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. Seventh-ranked Penn State beat fourth-ranked Brigham Young, 15-13, 6-15, 16-14, 15-12, in the other semifinal match.

Scott, a 6-foot-2 senior middle blocker, also had two block solos and five block assists for the 49ers (31-2) in their semifinal victory.

“I think I played relaxed and confident,” Scott said.

Part of the reason for Scott’s successful performance was that the Gators (33-4) were weakened because of injury.

Florida played without starter Aycan Gokberk, an All-American middle blocker who had a school-record 674 kills this season. Gokberk was sidelined because of a knee injury.

“They seemed to be more bothered than I thought they would be by losing their middle (blocker),” said Brian Gimmillaro, Long Beach coach.

Florida played Long Beach closely in the first game before the 49ers broke a 9-9 tie. Sparked by three kills by Scott, Long Beach outscored Florida, 6-1, to win the game.

Florida took a 2-0 lead in the second game, but Long Beach came back on three Gator errors. The 49ers never trailed again.

The Gators’ Julie Stanhope, who started at middle blocker in place of Gokberk, pulled a hamstring and left the match early in the third game.

“When Julie went down with the pulled hamstring, I think the reaction from all of us was, ‘What next?’ ” said Coach Mary Wise, who has led the Gators to two consecutive appearances in the NCAA final four.

The victory was the 15th in a row for Long Beach and its 28th sweep.

Penn State (31-4) was led by Ton Zeynep, a sophomore outside hitter from Istanbul, Turkey. Zeynep had 18 kills and 20 digs to lead Penn State past BYU (29-3).

“I thought it was a match that could have gone either way,” said Penn State Coach Russ Rose. “But I thought that we played the tough points well. We kept ourselves in a position to win.”