Columbus-bound: Huskers upend rival Texas to punch another Final Four ticket – HuskerExtra.com

AUSTIN, Texas — There are one or two more matches to be played later this week.

But for the Nebraska volleyball team, the comeback from a low point earlier in the season is complete, and the state’s beloved sports team is headed back to the NCAA Final Four.

The dream was realized when the Huskers took down mighty Texas and its crazy-good offense on Saturday in the Elite Eight 25-19, 25-23, 23-25, 25-21.

Maybe even sweeter for No. 10 Nebraska, it beat No. 2 Texas on its home court at Gregory Gymnasium. The Nebraska players were booed during warmups, and the Texas students kept the heat on for most of the match.

In the end of the second set when Texas went on a 3-0 run to tie the match at 22-22, Nebraska called a timeout. And then for the next few minutes, the music and cheering were as loud as it gets outside the clubs down on Sixth Street in Austin.

And this was a Texas squad that setter Jhenna Gabriel said a few days ago wasn’t a Sweet 16-type team, but a national championship-winning team.

This is the third time Nebraska had ended legitimate national championship hopes for the Longhorns, joining the 1995 and 2015 national championship years when Nebraska beat Texas.

Nebraska outside hitter Madi Kubik tied for the team lead in kills with 15. But this match may be remembered as the coming-out party for two freshmen, Ally Batenhorst and Lindsay Krause, who helped get the Huskers a 2-0 match lead when Kubik had a slow start. They combined for eight kills on eight attempts to start the match.

Batenhorst had 15 kills with a .406 hitting percentage. Krause had 13 kills and five blocks. Keonilei Akana had a career-high seven ace serves, and Lexi Rodriguez had 20 digs.

Nebraska completed a two-month journey back from a low spot by Nebraska’s lofty standards. Nebraska lost three straight matches in September, and after one of those matches coach John Cook said, “we did nothing.”

Flash forward 12 weeks later and Cook was dripping wet after getting doused with water by his players in the locker room.

“I told the team this is one of — I don’t know if I want to use the word greatest — but it was one of the most satisfying wins to come here and win, especially with the season we’ve had and the setbacks we’ve had,” Cook said. “Losing matches, and all of that. But we’ve been really close, and tonight they put it together.”

Nebraska is going to the Final Four for the fifth time in seven years but had missed out on the past two.

Cook has gotten Nebraska to the Final Four 10 times, and usually, he’s done as one of the frontrunners in college volleyball. This time Nebraska was the underdog.

Nebraska, the No. 10 overall seed going into the tournament, was the No. 3 team in its part of the bracket. Now the Huskers are one of the four teams still playing.

This is the first time Nebraska has reached the Final Four under Cook when ranked lower than sixth, and NU became the lowest-seeded team to advance to the NCAA semifinals since 2014.

Nebraska’s defense won the Huskers a lot of matches, and this time they also got enough offense to stun the Longhorns. Nebraska had 59 kills and Texas 49.

Nebraska had nine ace serves. Texas had 14 serving errors, many in big moments at the end of sets.

The season hasn’t been great for the Huskers (25-7), but it all came together over two hours late into the night in Texas.

Nebraska was getting kills from each position, digging big shots from Texas’ superstar hitters and serving great. Nebraska won the close sets that have hurt them several times in the past, winning the second set 25-23 by fighting off a late Texas rally.

In the clinching fourth set, Nebraska broke down Texas with an 8-0 serving run by Kubik for a 20-12 lead.

“That was ridiculous,” Cook said.

In that run, Kubik served two aces, and Texas’ passing was a mess, with Batenhorst blasting back two kills on overpasses.

Texas got the deficit to 21-19. But Nebraska held on, and Krause got the final kill on a shot that deflected into the Texas student section.

The players celebrated on the court. Assistant coach Jaylen Reyes jumped into the arms of associate head coach Tyler Hildebrand. Nebraska fans chanted, “Go Big Red.”

Then the celebration moved to the locker room.

“I don’t know if you can tell, but we’re soaking wet,” Nebraska setter Nicklin Hames said. “You can kind of see it in coaches’ hair. Just really excited. I think we were kind of in shock there for a second. We really believed in ourselves when I don’t think a lot of people did that we would win that game. We were just thrilled. We were holding up the little ticket, and spraying everybody. It was a lot of fun in the locker room. We’re super-excited.”

Nebraska had come up short in the Elite Eight the past two seasons, against Wisconsin in 2019 and Texas last season.

“The past couple of years we’ve kind of come up short and not played great in that final game,” said Hames, who was named the MVP of the regional. “And everyone stepped up in this team. And it wasn’t perfect, but … we had each others’ backs and we outhearted and outteamed them, I feel like. So that’s what’s the most special part about. We finally got over the hump, and we did it together.”

This was a flawed team, with Cook searching for a second outside hitter to take hold of the job and keep it for part of the season. The right-side hitter spot had a little of that, too.

But it’s a flawed team that’s now two wins from a national championship.

“I think this team has been through the wringer pretty much this season,” senior middle blocker Lauren Stivrins said. “We’ve kind of had a lot of trial and error, and things that didn’t really go our way. But all of it has led us to where we are.”