Huge crowds dig action, nearly set record

By Melody Gutierrez

- Sacramento Bee

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Crowds at Arco Arena again reached near-record levels as an announced crowd of 13,631 fans attended Saturday's NCAA championship match, watching Penn State defeat Stanford in a five-game thriller.

It was the second-largest crowd to attend a volleyball title match in the 27-year history of the tournament, much to the delight of John McCasey of the Sacramento Sports Commission.

Thursday's matches at Arco drew 13,048 fans, also the second-highest semifinal figure in NCAA history. The two-day total for the tournament was 26,679, also second-best.

When the Sacramento Sports Commission won the bid in 2002 to host the tournament, the attendance record was 23,978 fans, a mark set in Madison, Wis., in the two-day tournament in 1998.

McCasey said in bidding for the Final Four, he felt Arco could put up similar numbers from 1998.

Then last year's Final Four in Omaha, Neb., brought in 34,222 fans to Qwest Center for the semifinal and championship matches. Nebraska again will host the Final Four in 2008, with Tampa, Fla., the site in 2009.

Stanford coach John Dunning said he was pleased with Sacramento's hospitality, even though it took him a while to warm to the idea.

"At first I wasn't happy about it because we bid on it, and they beat us for that year," Dunning said. "We really wanted to host it this year, but they came up with a great bid, and this is a great site. They put the whole package together for it to be here, so after I got over the initial shock of us not getting it … I love volleyball in Northern California."

SWEATER UPDATE – Penn State's Nicole Fawcett tattled about how her coach has strange superstitions, noting that he wears the same blue sweater every match. Sure enough, Russ Rose wore the sweater both Thursday and Saturday.

It proved to be lucky after all.

BIG TIME – Players from Division I through Division III volleyball programs who were named All-Americans attended Saturday's match, signing autographs for fans before being honored at halftime. While most of them sat in the stands in their team warmups, eight players named to the American Volleyball Association's Division I All-America team were in the championship match.

Stanford first-team selections Foluke Akinradewo, Cynthia Barboza and Bryn Kehoe and second-teamer Alix Klineman, along with Penn State first-team picks Nicole Fawcett, Christa Harmotto and Megan Hodge and the second team's Alisha Glass made for a star-studded match.

"I don't know if that has happened before. It probably has," Dunning said. "I think that most of the people who know a lot about volleyball have been looking forward to this season, because I think it's growing each year.

"This is definitely a year where there are lots of great players and there are lots of great teams."