Lauren Cacciamani is a former volleyball player for

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

College

Cacciamani attended

from 1996 to 1999 where she played volleyball for four years. In her sophomore season, she helped the Nittany Lions to make it to the Championship match of the

1997 NCAA Division I women's volleyball tournament The 1997 NCAA Division I women's volleyball tournament began with 56 teams and ended on December 20, 1997, when Stanford defeated Penn State 3 games to 2 in the NCAA championship match. Stanford won their second straight title and 4th in 6 years ...

. Penn State was matched up against

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

, who has only lost two matches all season, both to Penn State. Stanford won the first two games, but Penn State came back to win the next two. Stanford won the final game so Penn State came away as national champion runner-up. In her junior year, Cacciamani again helped lead her team to the Championship match of the

1998 NCAA Division I women's volleyball tournament The 1998 NCAA Division I women's volleyball tournament began on December 3, 1998, with 64 teams and ended December 19 when Long Beach State defeated Penn State 3 games to 2 in Madison, Wisconsin, for the program's third NCAA title and fifth nation ...

. This time the opponent was undefeated

Long Beach State California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) is a public research university in Long Beach, California. The 322-acre campus is the second largest of the 23-school California State University system (CSU) and one of the largest universities i ...

, but the match unfolded in a sequence reminiscent of the previous year. Long Beach won the first two games, needing only one more game for the national championship. However, Penn State came back to win the next two games and force a decisive fifth game. Penn State led early in the fifth game, but Long Beach came back and won, leaving Penn State as the runner-up once again. Despite the loss, Cacciamani was named as the co-MVP of the tournament, along with

Misty May Misty Elizabeth May-Treanor (; née May; born July 30, 1977) is a retired American professional beach volleyball player. She is a three-time Olympic gold medalist, and , was the most successful female beach volleyball player having won 112 tou ...

of Long Beach. In her senior year, Cacciamani helped lead her team back to the title match of the 1999 NCAA Division I women's volleyball tournament. The opponent this year was Stanford, who had beaten them two years prior, but this time Penn State prevailed, winning the first three game to win their first ever national championship. Cacciamani had eight blocks along with a match-high 20 kills and was named the MVP of the tournament. She was also named the co-National Player of the year by the AVCA along with

Kerri Walsh Kerri Lee Walsh Jennings (born August 15, 1978) is an American professional beach volleyball player, three-time Olympic gold medalist, and a one-time Olympic bronze medalist. She is the beach volleyball leader in career victories as of 2016 hav ...

. In 2000, she was the winner of the

Honda Sports Award The Honda Sports Award is an annual award in the United States, given to the best collegiate female athlete in each of twelve sports. There are four nominees for each sport, and the twelve winners of the Honda Sports Award are automatically in th ...

, given to the nation's top female collegiate volleyball player.

Awards and honors

* AVCA National Player of the year (1999) * MVP of NCAA Division I women's volleyball tournament (1998, 1999) *

(2000)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cacciamani, Lauren Living people American women's volleyball players Penn State Nittany Lions women's volleyball players Year of birth missing (living people) Big Ten Athlete of the Year winners