There are times in sports when one team just looks destined to win, and that might be the case for Penn State women’s volleyball.
Penn State will go for their program’s first national championship since 2014 when they face off against Louisville this afternoon. This comes after a miraculous reverse sweep in the national semifinals against the No. 2 overall seed Nebraska. What was the source of inspiration for that comeback? Their head coach.
Penn State head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley is a Nittany Lion lifer. She helped the team win a national championship in 1999, she was named the associate head coach in 2018, and eventually took over as head coach in 2022. Going into her third year in charge of the program she had grand ideas. A September cancer diagnosis with stage 2 breast cancer could’ve changed everything this year for her. Except it didn’t.
She never missed a practice. Never missed a game. At the same time, she never missed a doctors appointment and never missed a treatment. Schumacher-Cawley has shared very few details about her surreal season, but it’s clear that her players have looked to her for inspiration.
After falling behind 2-0 in the first two sets to Nebraska in the national semifinals, coach Schumacher-Cawley brought her team into a huddle. Her calm, confident, speech changed it all. The Nittany Lions came out with a new purpose, a new intensity. They won the next set, then came back in the fourth set after being down to match point twice, eventually winning the third set. Never giving up. Never backing down.
What was it? Maybe it was the speech. But that type of comeback isn’t built by one speech. It’s built in the season-long battle by coach and the players, it’s built by enforcing a no-phone policy so the players can be in the moment, it’s built by believing in this season’s mantra: “Bigger than us.” It takes a special sort of belief to come back from the brink of defeat.
Whether Penn State wins today or not, it’s hard not to believe that every single person involved with that program is not a better person today than they were 3 months ago. They are stronger for what they’ve been through, more impassioned and understanding, and more in the moment than ever before. Win or lose, coach Schumacher-Cawley is a champion.
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