A Perfect Ending for Long Beach

They have the nation’s top player and the nation’s top coach.

And now they have another national championship.

The Long Beach State 49ers overcame a furious comeback to outlast Penn State, 15-3, 15-10, 13-15, 14-16, 15-12, in front of a record 13,194 on Saturday to claim their third NCAA women’s volleyball championship.

“It’s the best team in my 14 years I’ve seen play volleyball,” Long Beach State Coach Brian Gimmillaro said of his squad, which completed the season 36-0, the first undefeated season in NCAA women’s volleyball.

Penn State finished 35-1.

Gimmillaro, who last week was named coach of the year by the American Volleyball Coaches Assn., also won titles with the 49ers in 1989 and 1993. The 1993 title also was won at Madison with a victory over Penn State.

“I’m going to move here,” Gimmillaro said. “Buy a summer home, I think.”

Misty May, the AVCA’s two-time player of the year, set an NCAA tournament record for services aces, adding two Saturday for a total of 20 in the tournament.

“Misty May is the best player maybe to play college volleyball,” Gimmillaro said. “I think I’ve had a few of those players and Misty is just tremendous. She’s the hope and the future for our game. She’s exciting and dynamic. I hope we center volleyball around her.”

May, a senior setter from Costa Mesa, contributed 70 assists in the match and downed nine kills in her final match with the 49ers. May and Penn State middle hitter Lauren Cacciamani shared the tournament most valuable player honor.

As fellow senior Jessica Alvarado said, May had the scenario down the whole season.

“Misty said early in the season that there is a sequence,” Alvarado said. “Our first year, we went out in the second round. Our second year we went out in regionals. Our third year, we got here and we lost to Stanford. It was our year, it was our time.

“We set lofty goals in the beginning. We wanted to go 36-0, that was our goal. We’ve attained that goal and I don’t think it’s hit home yet. It’s something we set out to do and we’ve done it.”

But that goal may not have come to fruition had the 49ers not made a comeback in the fifth game.

Rally scoring--when points are scored on every point, no matter which team is serving--was in effect for Game 5 and the 49ers fell behind, 7-2. After switching sides of the net at 8-4, Long Beach went on a run, tying the score, 8-8.

The teams traded points until it was 12-12. Alvarado then made two kills from the left side and junior outside hitter Veronica Walls put down the winner from the right.

“I saw the opening and I could have hit it really hard, but I shot it to the corner because I saw there was no one there,” said Walls, who led the 49ers with 19 kills in the match and was named to the all-tournament team.

For May, there was no question her team would come out on top, despite the change in momentum and the deficit in the fifth game.

“I was just waiting for the last ball to go down so we could all start jumping around,” May said. “I knew it would take a while, but I knew we would do it.”

Long Beach took advantage of poor Nittany Lion hitting to win the first two games. The 49ers outhit Penn State, .474-.087, in the first and .485-.146 in the second.

The 49ers took a 7-1 lead in the first game with a 6-0 run. After Penn State scored, Long Beach scored five consecutive points.

Long Beach again started quickly in Game 2, but Penn State erased a 3-0 deficit with a six-point rally. Penn State, however, committed five errors in quick succession and lost the lead.

In Game 2, Long Beach led, 12-10, when Walls, May and Benishe Dillard scored kills to give the 49ers the game and what looked like a commanding 2-0 lead.

But Penn State fought off a Long Beach comeback for the victory in the third game and then came back from five points down in the fourth to even the match.

For Gimmillaro, the return to the top was well worth the wait.

“Once you taste the sweetness of being a champion,” he said, “you wonder if you’re ever going to be there again.”

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Long Beach State won its third NCAA Division I women’s volleyball championship Saturday with a victory over Penn State. Stanford is the only team with more titles.

* Stanford: 4

* Long Beach State: 3

* UCLA: 3

* Hawaii: 3