LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The Oregon volleyball team's dream season continues.

The No.5-seed Ducks upset the top-seeded Nittany Lions 3-1 in Thursday's NCAA Tournament semifinal before a crowd of 13,385 at the KFC Yum Center.

Oregon (30-4) topped the Nittany Lions (33-3) in four sets, 21-25, 30-28, 25-22, 25-19.

Oregon will vie for the national title against No.3-seed Texas (28-4) at 4p.m. Saturday.

Liz Brenner led Oregon with 17 kills and Alaina Bergsma and Katherine Fischer each added 16. Haley Jacob topped the Ducks with 20 digs.

Lauren Plum, the national leader in assists, had 51 for the Ducks.

"We certainly didn't play at the level we wanted to offensively, a lot of that had to do with Penn State obviously, but, boy, they're tough," Oregon coach Jim Moore said of his team.

Ariel Scott led Penn State (33-3) with 18 kills.

Oregon is making a habit of dimming Penn State's glory. When the two teams last met in 2011, the Ducks won 3-1, ending the Nittany Lions' NCAA-record 94-match home win streak.

After dropping the first set, the Ducks survived a late Penn State rally in the second set and benefited from building early leads in the third and fourth sets.

The fourth set was a nail biter as the Ducks bolted to a 23-14 lead, but the Nittany Lions -- as they did all night -- mounted a comeback. Penn State cut the gap to 24-19.

After an Oregon timeout, Plum sealed the win with a kill assisted by Fischer.

"As the game went on, we became more comfortable and we were in our game, definitely in our flow," Brenner said. "That threw them off and they weren't used to having another team do that. I feel like that rattled them a little. We just took advantage of it and kept pressing."

In the first set, Oregon went up 20-19 on a kill by Ariana Williams. After a timeout, Penn State rallied to outscore the Ducks 6-1 to close out the set.

The Ducks took command early in the second set, rolling to a 14-6 lead. Oregon led by as many as 10, but the Nittany Lions orchestrated a rally. They cut the deficit to 20-17 and took a 26-25 lead. The teams traded points until a Penn State serve error and a kill by Brenner gave the set to the Ducks.

"We got up by a lot, then relaxed a little bit," Bergsma said. "We definitely let them come back in the game. I think that was really clutch for us, to go in knowing that it's tied, that set 3's basically starting over. I think we did a really good job of fighting."

The third set was tight as neither team led by more than four points. After Penn State went up 20-19, Fischer drilled two kills -- both off assists by Plum -- to put the Ducks ahead 21-20. A kill by Williams sealed the set for Oregon.

Oregon benefited from a fast-paced tempo early in the fourth set, racing to a 9-3 lead on a 3-0 run capped by a Bergsma kill. The Ducks opened up their lead thanks to some key blocks from Brenner and Williams.

In the first semifinal, Bailey Webster had 18 kills, Haley Eckerman added 16 as Texas overcame a 2-1 deficit for a five-set victory over Michigan (27-12). Texas won 25-11, 21-25, 23-25, 25-12, 15-11.

--J.J. Hysell, special to The Oregonian