SPOKANE, Wash. -- The NCAA women's volleyball tournament started with 56 teams chasing the ultimate goal of a national championship. And now 16 days after the first balls were spiked, dug, blocked and served in the 1997 NCAA tournament, just Penn State and Stanford reamain swinging. The No. 2-ranked Nittany Lions and No. 3-ranked Cardinal meet at 3 p.m. (EST) today in the Spokane Arena for the NCAA title with a national television audience watching on ESPN2 and more than 10,000 volleyball enthusiasts sitting in squeaky clean Spokane Arena wondering the same thing: Can Penn State beat Stanford, the defending national champion, for the third time this season and capture the school's first-ever women's volleyball national title?

"If we play our best," Penn State setter Bonnie Bremner said, "I think we'll win."

Neither the Nittany Lions (34-1) nor the Cardinal (32-2) were at their best Thursday in the NCAA semifinals. Penn State coach Russ Rose said his team never got into rhythm during its 3-0 win over Florida, while Stanford coach Don Shaw said his squad's 3-1 defeat of Long Beach State wasn't one of its better matches.

"I think the two matches we saw weren't the teams playing their best," Rose said of Thursday's action.

Both teams, though, enter the NCAA final on impressive winning streaks. Penn State, since losing at Wisconsin on Halloween night, has won 13 consecutive matches, the last 12 in three games. Stanford is undefeated in its last 27 matches -- with its only losses of the season coming against Penn State.

"We're a way better team now than we were then," Walsh said.

The "then" Walsh speaks of was a two-week span stretching from late August to early September when Penn State defeated Stanford twice to earn the No. 1 ranking it held for nearly two months until that loss to Wisconsin. Here's a quick look at the 1997 Penn State-Stanford matches:

u The Nittany Lions ended the Cardinal's 50-match home winning streak with a 3-0 (15-8, 15-13, 15-9) win on Aug. 23 in the final of the State Farm/NACWAA Women's Volleyball Classic.

Neither team, however, was at full strength. Penn State middle hitter Lauren Cacciamani, playing on a twisted ankle, managed 13 kills and 10 digs but was not 100 percent. Stanford was without outside hitter Kerri Walsh, and setter Lisa Sharpley was limited because of a knee injury.

"I think I threw out the tape of the first one or I taped over it," Shaw said. "We weren't ready for any competition."

u Penn State, with middle hitter Terri Zemaitis beginning to feel the effects of shin splints, beat Stanford 3-1 (14-16, 15-6, 15-12, 15-7) on Sept. 6 at the Connecticut Ikon Husky Invitational. The Cardinal was minus Walsh and Sharpley.

"The second one was a pretty competitive match," Shaw said. "We learned a lot from that."

One thing Shaw learned was that Penn State is one heckuva balanced team.

"They're really solid all the way around," Shaw said. "There's not a whole lot of hocus pocus out there with Penn State.

"They just have a lot of options. Our challenge is to deal with their balance because they can attack from any position in their lineup. With some teams you can cheat a little bit more, but with these guys you have to play them pretty straight up."

The Nittany Lions' balance was evident during their win over Florida. Carrie Schonveld finished with a team-high 17 kills, but Zemaitis (14), Cochran (12), Cacciamani (10) and Lindsay Anderson (nine) each presented the Gators with problems. And Bremner, who finished with 56 assists but admittedly was tentative, is an All-America setter.

"Every team has to have people step up," Rose said. "The good teams don't depend on one or two people."

Stanford depends on a powerful offense that is led by Walsh and Pac-10 player of the year Kristin Folkl. Walsh, a 6-foot-2 sophomore, finished with a match-high 22 kills against Long Beach State. Folkl, a 6-foot-2 senior and also a member of the Stanford women's basketball team, is a force from her outside hitter position.

"A lot of our hitters have the ability to dominate," Sharpley said. "I just have to give them hittable balls. That will be the key, and not being predictable."

As for predictable, many thought Penn State and Stanford meet for a third time for the national title. Can the Nittany Lions beat the Cardinal an unprecedented three times in the same season? Can Stanford find an answer for Penn State's balance?

"By 3 o'clock (Washington State time) some people are going to be jumping around celebrating a national title," Rose said. "Other people are going to be sitting around wondering what they could've done to have effected a change in the outcome."