Nebraska beats Florida to seize fifth volleyball championship

Nebraska volleyball will leave Kansas City as national champions.

Nebraska’s previous titles came in 1995 under coach Terry Pettit and in 2000, 2006 and 2015 under John Cook. We could’ve won it 3-0. She had a couple tough sets in the third game, to start the third game.

The Huskers (32-4), who won their second national championship in three years, knocked off Florida in four sets: 25-22, 25-17, 18-25, 25-16.

Mikaela Foecke led the Huskers with 20 kills along with 14 digs four a double-double while Lauren Stivrins added another nine.

But it was the Husker defense that foiled Penn State like none other. Penn State brought a nation-leading.345 attack percentage into the match, and saw its season end after hitting a season-low.217.

The Huskers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in Set 2, and before the Gators knew it, it was a 16-9 Nebraska lead as the Huskers cruised to a Set 2 win.

What’s more, he said the staff was already talking about having Cook take them to Cabo San Lucas like he did a year ago. “They’ll be talking about this team for a long time”. “They don’t make a lot of errors”.

The Nebraska-Florida volleyball match is set for 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on Saturday, December 16. The Gators beat the Cornhuskers 3-2 in Gainesville in their second match of the season.

Nebraska won the opening set 25-18 before dropping the next two, and then rallied to win the fourth 28-26 and force a deciding set.

“It’s kind of forgiving to know that if you make a bad play, it’s fine, it’s over and then you can make another play”, Nebraska outside hitter Annika Albrecht said. There will also be some goof ups – like two Penn State players running into each other. Rhamat Alhassan had seven kills, an ace and six kills, one solo.

After Florida’s win over Stanford on Thursday in the NCAA volleyball national semifinal round, UF head coach Mary Wise said she was grateful to get to play in a “road match” tonight. “I think she was pumped up”. Her phrasing – “road match” – was a joke … except it wasn’t really a joke. “We just have this mentality that I’ve never had on a team I’ve been on”. Unlike in Set 1, where the Huskers hit just.081, Nebraska hit.417 in Set 2 and dominated the Gators to take a 2-0 lead into the break. Which they did. Nebraska lost just once more – at Wisconsin on October 11 – and finished the season on a 19-match winning streak.

The 6-foot-4 Alhassan was literally in the middle of the action all night, finishing with a team-high 17 kills and season-high.517 hitting percentage. “She was just hot”.

Nebraska’s three seniors closed it out as the teams traded side outs to the end.

After sharing the Big Ten title with Penn State, which got the NCAA’s No. 1 seed, the Huskers got the fifth seed, which meant they didn’t get a chance to host a regional. “It’s just been, like I said, really fun and rewarding”.

“Red and loud”, she replied, when ask what she expects Saturday night.

Hunter has 173 assists in four career matches in the Final Four (national semifinals and finals). She looked at Albrecht and Foecke for help.

Kenzie Maloney added 15 digs and was the third Husker selected to the All-Tournament Team. Warren spent this season as defensive backs coach and special teams coordinator.

“I was having flashbacks of this whole thing to 2008, same thing”, Cook said.

“I think it’s really cool for us being seniors to still try and change our game and get better”. But in her career, Nebraska has never known defeat at Penn State’s hands.

“In that fourth game, she was really, really good and made really good decisions. We just kind of showed people the team we thought we could be”, setter Kelly Hunter said. Then Hunter was brilliant again, serving a 4-0 run that was part of a 5-0 run that put the Huskers up 9-1. That sparked another 5-0 run for the Huskers.