Role Reversal Puts UCLA in the Final : NCAA volleyball: Johnson excels in hitter role as Buckner struggles in five-game victory over Penn State.

All season, Jenny Johnson has played a supporting role for the UCLA women’s volleyball team, passing and playing defense so that teammate Annett Buckner could put the ball away.

But on Thursday, those roles needed to change. And so deftly did the co-captains do so that UCLA recovered from early trouble and defeated Penn State, 3-15, 15-4, 15-9, 5-15, 15-11, in a semifinal match of the NCAA tournament before 7,077 in the Frank Erwin Center, earning their seventh appearance in an NCAA final.

The Bruins (32-3) will play Stanford, which beat Ohio State, 15-11, 15-9, 15-7, Saturday night for the title. Versatility was the key for UCLA.

“We have five hitters out there who all are very capable and know that if they get hot, they are going to get the ball,” UCLA Coach Andy Banachowski said.

So the Bruins got the ball to Johnson, and she finished with a team-high 18 kills.

Buckner and Alyson Randick each contributed 12. Buckner needs 12 kills to break the UCLA single-season record, set in 1983 when Patty Orozco had 627. Randick had a remarkably efficient hitting night, making only two errors in 24 attacks for a .417 hitting percentage.

Johnson, who ranks third on the Bruins in hitting behind Buckner and Kim Krull, is aware that her usual role is to keep the ball in play so her teammates can get it to Buckner.

“I don’t think my purpose on the team is to put balls away,” Johnson said.

But it became apparent early that Buckner was struggling. Faced with at least two Penn State blockers every time she jumped to hit the ball, she made six errors in 15 attempts in the first game alone. After that, Buckner turned her attention to digging and blocking.

And that’s when Johnson took over. Johnson had nine kills to help the Bruins win the second game and get back in the match.

“I just realized that we couldn’t play the second game like we played the first game, so I just tried to pick up my level of play,” she said.

But it was more than that.

“I think we were embarrassed by the score of that first game,” Banachowski said.

The teams split the next two games to force a fifth game, in which UCLA capitalized on several errors by Penn State (31-4). The Bruins won when Krull took a set from Kelly Flannigan and sent it to the ground through two sprawling Penn State players.

“We came into the fifth game feeling very confident,” said Salima Davidson, Penn State’s senior setter. “But some critical points were given up at some critical times.”

Penn State hit better than UCLA, .210-.156, in the match.

Stanford (31-1) played well despite being awakened at 6 a.m. by a malfunctioning fire alarm in its hotel, the team trudging out in the rain in pajamas.

Kristin Folkl, a freshman, led Stanford over Ohio State (29-3) with 15 kills. She had only four errors in 26 attempts, hitting .423.

The final will be a rematch of the 1992 championship game, when UCLA went undefeated before losing the title to Stanford in four games at New Mexico.