All but Outcome Surprises Scott : Volleyball: She is overcome with emotion after leading Long Beach over Penn State in NCAA title match.

One moment, Danielle Scott of the Long Beach State women’s volleyball team was surprised that a Penn State middle blocker would try to tap the ball around her block, which is one of the biggest in the game.

The next moment, after the 6-foot-2 Scott had slammed the ball back into the Nittany Lions’ side of the court and had given the 49ers match point in the NCAA women’s volleyball championship Saturday, Scott was surprised at herself.

Third-ranked Long Beach defeated seventh-ranked Penn State, 15-13, 12-15, 15-11, 16-14, before a record crowd of 11,114 at the University of Wisconsin Field House, and afterward, Scott was surprised at the intensity of her emotions.

“After the ball went down on the last play, I couldn’t believe it was over with. I didn’t think I’d feel as emotional as I did,” said Scott, who cried and hugged her teammates in a huddle in the middle of the court.

Penn State’s persistent defense and overwhelming support from the Big-Ten-partisan crowd kept them in the match. But the 49ers (32-2) ultimately overpowered the Nittany Lions (31-5).

Trailing, 14-11, in the fourth game, Nichelle Burton, a Long Beach junior outside hitter, saved two Penn State game-point opportunities with two kills. Long Beach tied the score on a block and a kill by Burton, and a kill by middle blocker Traci Dahl. The 49ers took the lead on a block by Scott and outside hitter Krissee Sether, before Scott scored match point on a block against Genny Myszewski.

“I just saw an opportunity and I reached, and it happened to go down,” Scott said.

It was the 49ers’ second NCAA title. They won their other championship in 1989.

Scott, the national player of the year, was limited to a .200 hitting percentage in the match. Scott finished her collegiate career with a hitting percentage of .426, an NCAA record, eclipsing Illinois’ Mary Eggers mark of .420 between 1985-1988.

The crowd was the biggest at an NCAA women’s volleyball match, eclipsing the previous record, which was set at a 1991 regular-season match between UCLA and Nebraska at Lincoln, Neb., by 82.

The two-day total attendance of 21,384 also broke the previous record for attendance at an NCAA women’s volleyball final four, which was set in 1988 at Minneapolis, by 5,038.

Burton led all players with a career-high 28 kills and also had 11 digs.

The 49ers, making their third consecutive appearance in an NCAA final four, defeated 14th-ranked Florida (33-4) in three games in Thursday’s semifinals. They have been pushed to five games only twice this season.

Penn State upset fourth-ranked Brigham Young (29-3) in the semifinals to become the first Big Ten team and the first team east of the Mississippi River to make it to the NCAA final.

“On paper, we had no reason to be out there,” said Penn State Coach Russ Rose, who did not have a first team All-American selection on his roster. “I think those no-name kids played their tails off out there.”