Dec. 18, 2004

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Minnesota started the season ranked fifth in the USA Today/CSTV Top 25 Coaches Preseason Poll with one first-place vote, while Stanford was placed at sixth in the preseason with two first-place votes. Minnesota is the only team to remain in the top five in the poll all season.

Stanford was playing its 11th championship match, while Minnesota reached the championship match for the first time. Minnesota held the top spot for three weeks this season and became the 14th school to hold the number-one position.

Stanford senior Ogonna Nnamani not only was named AVCA Division I Co-National Player of the Year on Dec. 17, she was also selected as ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American of the Year by CoSIDA earlier in December.

Minnesota, which had never reached the national semifinal round until last year, has returned to the semifinals for the second straight year. Stanford is making its first appearance in the title match since 2002 when the Cardinal lost to Southern California.

Minnesota Head Coach Mike Hebert has led two different teams to the NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship semifinal round. In addition to leading both the 2003 and 2004 Gophers into the semifinal round, he Illinois to the same round in 1987 and 1988. Only three other coaches have achieved the feat two different schools.

Minnesota junior libero Paula Gentil set the NCAA single-season dig record last week at the regional semifinal and final. She now has 924 on the season and is the first Division I player to reach 900 digs in single year. She is the first libero to earn AVCA All-America First-Team with her inclusion on the 2004 squad. Gentil has 176 digs in the NCAA Tournament, smashing the previous record of 95 held by Pacific's Dorothy Hert in 1986. She set a national semifinal match record with 33 digs against Southern California on Dec. 16. Gentil is currently third on the NCAA career dig list with 2,139.

Minnesota is only the third Big Ten Team to reach the NCAA Tournament championship match. Wisconsin was the last to do so in 2000. Penn State reached the finals in 1993, 1997, 1998 and 1999. The Big Ten's only national title came in 1999 with the Nittany Lions taking home the trophy.

Stanford is one of four schools to have participated in each of the 24 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship tournaments.

Stanford has three players on this year's roster that has taken part in two national championships (2001 and 2004). Ogonna Nnamani, Jennifer Hucke and Leahi Hall all were freshmen as the Cardinal defeated Long Beach State to win its last NCAA title in 2001. The three Stanford players have now appeared in the three NCAA title matches, including the 2001, 2002 and 2004 events. Stanford has won five national women's volleyball championships (1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2001).

Stanford has played in all four time zones in the last four weeks. The Cardinal played Arizona and Arizona State in the Mountain Time Zone, the NCAA Tournament first and second rounds in the Eastern Time Zone at Florida A&M, the region semifinal and region final in the Central Time Zone at Green Bay, Wis., and now the NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship Tournament semifinals in the Pacific Time Zone in Long Beach.

Stanford entered the NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship as the 11th seed. Only the 2003 Minnesota team has reached the national semifinals from a lower seed. The Gophers were seeded 13th in last year's tournament.

The two-day attendance total was 17,165 for the NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship (8,339 for the semifinals, 8,826 for the championship).