Former NDA volleyball stars Thelen, Hentz in national spotlight as NCAA Final Four commences

By Don Owen
NKyTribune reporter

If everything works out perfectly Thursday night, a pair of former Notre Dame Academy volleyball teammates will be on opposite sides of the net playing for the NCAA national championship on Saturday in Kansas City, Mo.

In one national semifinal is Penn State and senior right-side hitter Heidi Thelen, an Edgewood native playing the best volleyball of her career as the top-ranked Nittany Lions enter their Final Four match against Nebraska at 7 p.m.

The other semifinal match features sophomore libero Morgan Hentz and defending national champion Stanford, which squares off against Florida at 9 p.m. Hentz, a Lakeside Park native and another former Panda volleyball star, is one of the nation’s premier back-row players.

Stanford capped Hentz’s freshman campaign in 2016 by capturing its seventh national championship, tying Penn State for the most volleyball titles in NCAA Division I history. If Stanford and Penn State both win Thursday night, that national championship deadlock will be snapped Saturday night with a head-to-head matchup.

Both national semifinals will be televised on ESPN. The national championship match is set for Saturday at 9 p.m. and will also be televised on ESPN.

Though separated by 2,719 miles last weekend, Thelen and Hentz both played vital roles in securing berths in the national semifinals for their respective teams.

THELEN ELEVATES GAME IN REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

With a trip to the Final Four at stake last weekend, Thelen elevated her game to prodigious proportions and led Penn State to the regional championship. The Notre Dame Academy product finished with nine kills and attacked at a blistering .643 clip as Penn State swept Michigan State, 25-23, 25-17, 28-26, at University Park, Pa.

Thelen added four blocks as the Nittany Lions improved to 33-1 and earned their first trip to the Final Four since 2014. Thelen was part of that 2014 Penn State team, but she played sparingly as a freshman.

“We went [to the Final Four] my freshman year, but I wasn’t seeing the court, so it was just an awesome experience,” Thelen said. “It’s different from being a freshman and being like ‘Wow, this is so cool,’ and now actually being a part of it and on the court is something different, but really exciting.

“It’s my last season, so I’m happy to spend these last moments with my teammates and we want to win, so we are going to work hard.”

With Michigan State keying on Penn State All-America middle blocker Haleigh Washington, Thelen stepped up and produced big-time results. She attempted 14 attacks and converted nine kills without an error.

“Heidi had a lot of opportunities to attack because they were so keyed up on Haleigh, but there is a lot of coaching going on [with] both sides,” Penn State head coach Russ Rose said. “It’s not just the home team that is working hard. They had a great game plan and the best thing about Haleigh is she didn’t care that she didn’t have kills because she was blocking well and the team was winning.”

Washington finished with five kills and hit just .176, but she collected 10 blocks. Simone Lee led Penn State with 12 kills and attacked at a .281 clip.

Thelen, however, outhit everyone with her .643 attacking percentage and emerged as one of the stars in Penn State’s regional championship victory.

HENTZ ANCHORS DEFENSE, STANFORD AIMS FOR NCAA REPEAT

Meanwhile, out on the west coast, Hentz anchored the Stanford defense as the Cardinal eliminated Texas, 25-21, 25-21, 25-21, in the regional championship match at Stanford, Calif. Hentz was named to the all-regional team after pacing the Cardinal defense with 19 digs in the victory against Texas.

Going into the national semifinals against Florida, Hentz leads Stanford in digs (461) and has also served up 20 aces.

“It’s really an honor to be back in the Final Four, the team is excited and we’re ready to play,” Hentz said. “We haven’t looked too far ahead, just one point at a time, one moment at a time.”

Hentz, who earned All-Pacific 12 Conference honors this season, was also named Pac-12 Libero of the Year. She collected a season-high 24 digs against then-No. 18 UCLA on Nov. 16, including the 1,000th of her career.

“It’s a big honor because there are a lot of amazing liberos in the Pac-12,” Hentz said. “The competition in the Pac-12 is at such a high level, so to represent so many other good players in the conference is awesome.”

All this follows an outstanding freshman campaign at Stanford in which Hentz earned All-Pac-12 honorable mention accolades and a spot on the All-Pac-12 Freshman Team. She set a Stanford single-season record with 630 digs, including a career-high 30 digs in a five-set win at then-No. 3 Wisconsin on Dec. 10, 2016.

Stanford — which graduated first-team All-American middle blocker Inky Ajanaku from last year’s national championship squad — starts four sophomores and a freshman. But Hentz said the focus has remained the same in 2017.

“I don’t think the team’s mindset is any different from last year,” she said. “It’s different in terms of leadership from last year, because Inky was our leader, but we’ve had a lot of other players step up in that role.”

Hentz knows something about leadership as well. As a four-year letterwinner at Notre Dame Academy, she helped the Pandas win four consecutive regional championships. Hentz was named Miss Kentucky Volleyball in 2015 and was a finalist for national player of the year.

Notre Dame’s captain as a junior and senior, Hentz was also honored as the Greater Cincinnati Northern Kentucky Sportswoman Association’s High School Sportswoman of the Year in 2016. The anchor of Notre Dame’s back row, she was also named Kentucky Gatorade Player of the Year in 2015.

Thursday, Dec. 14
NCAA national semifinals
At Kansas City, Mo.
Penn State (33-1) vs. Nebraska (30-4), 7 p.m.
Stanford (30-3) vs. Florida (29-1), 9 p.m.

Saturday, Dec. 16
NCAA national championship, 9 p.m.

Contact Don Owen at don@nkytrib.com