Texas sweeps Minnesota in national semifinal to set up meeting with Penn State-Hawaii winner

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Texas sweeps Minnesota in national semifinal

TAMPA, Fla. — Texas moved one step away from the second volleyball championship in school history, sweeping Minnesota 25-19, 25-20, 25-15 in Thursday night’s national semifinal.

Destinee Hooker led the Longhorns (29-1) with 17 kills, part of a team of outside hitters that punished the Gophers with size and strength at the net.

Texas will play for the title Saturday night against the winner of the Penn State-Hawaii match. The Nittany Lions are going for an unprecedented third straight national championship and looking to extend their record 100-match winning streak.

The only major challenge Texas faced came in the final set.

The Gophers came out active and agile after dropping the first two sets. They went ahead 12-8 with a flurry of deep digs and hard-pounding spikes.

The Longhorns regrouped, rallied and put away Minnesota quickly. Texas won 12 of the next 13 points and cruised the rest of the way.

Taking home Texas’ first volleyball title since 1988 won’t be easy.

Penn State is heavily favored to win its third straight championship, and Hawaii is looking for its fourth in school history. Hawaii coach Dave Shoji also has 1,016 career victories.

But Penn State is the team everybody is trying to beat.

The Nittany Lions swept all but four of their 36 wins this year. They’ve lost just five sets all season, the last one on Nov. 20 at Purdue.

The 100-match streak is second in Division I team sports behind the Miami men’s tennis program’s 137 straight wins from 1957-64. The Nittany Lions haven’t lost since falling to Stanford in September 2007.