Volleyball championship game

This is Nebraska's 16th final four and 10th championship game. Nebraska won its second title -- and current coach John Cook's first -- in against Wisconsin.

Cook was in his first season then as head coach of the Huskers, having returned to Nebraska in after seven seasons running Wisconsin's program. Cook previously had been an assistant at Nebraska from and spent the season there preparing to be the handpicked successor to legendary coach Terry Pettit, who retired after that season.

Cook felt he couldn't pass up going back to Nebraska. But despite ending a perfect season with a win over the Badgers in the NCAA final, Cook mostly just felt glad the discomfort of facing his former team was now in the past.

He had recruited many of the Badgers' players, and remembers none of them would talk to him at the final four. Cook's subsequent three titles -- , and -- have been more fun for him: two came in Omaha, Nebraska, about an hour's drive from the Huskers' campus in Lincoln, and the other was three hours away in Kansas City.

But Nebraska fans travel everywhere, and the volleyball team is the pride of the whole state. The Badgers have been in the final four five times, including the past three years. Rettke and fellow fifth-year seniors Sydney Hilley and Lauren Barnes played in the NCAA final two years ago -- losing to Stanford in straight sets -- and lost in the semifinals last season to Texas. The Badgers were and the No. With the blanket eligibility exemption enacted last season for all players because of the pandemic, a program legend like Rettke has gotten a fifth year and another chance.

Same goes for Nebraska middle blocker Lauren Stivrins, the only current Huskers player who was on the national championship team. This is her sixth season overall with Nebraska, having redshirted in Either Stivrins will get her second championship or Rettke her first on Saturday, while volleyball should get a strong title match.

The Badgers beat the Huskers twice during the regular season, but both are peaking at the perfect time. Wisconsin came back from a deficit to take a lead after Grace Loberg and Rettke combined on a block followed by a kill by Rettke.

It felt at that moment that maybe Nebraska missed a chance to bury Wisconsin and really put pressure on the Badgers not to fall short in the final four or championship for the third straight season. Nebraska cut the deficit to and even won three straight championship points to make the Badgers sweat.

But Cook challenged the call and won the point, with the official ruling there was a touch by Wisconsin on the block attempt. Whatever Smrek does in the next three years of her Wisconsin career, this weekend will be remembered forever in program history. After hitting over. Sophomore Jade Demps also had a big night, hitting. Barnes, Hilley, Rettke and Loberg returned to win a national title and made good on that promise. So that was awesome and I'm just so thankful that this group of seniors came back and we got the job done.

For Nebraska, Stivrins returned for one last shot after winning a title in Setter Nicklin Hames lost in the final as a freshman. Despite a terrific performance with 56 assists and 23 digs, she now has the choice of either leaving without a title or returning for one last opportunity.

We knew these were two of the best teams in the nation and the winner was going to be whoever had the better outing. Well, there were a few Badgers that had quite the outings Anna Smrek had an absolutely insane night. The freshman looked like a seasoned vet out there and caused so many issues for Louisville.

She went up against a top-three blocking team and dominated. In the beginning of the season, it didn't look like Smrek would have much of a role at all in the rotation until the Badgers lost Danielle Hart to an ACL injury. So, she has gotten her chance and she has been unreal.

Smrek posted 20 kills at a. She had just ONE error. Dana Rettke posted 14 kills at a. Devyn Robinson played a big role towards the end of the match — she is always such a big spark for this Badgers team, and came up with a monumental block in the fifth.

This offense was led by Sydney Hilley, who dished out a great game and posted 58 assists. In watching this team you can see how much chemistry the offense has.

They looked like a machine out there, and if consistency was a problem earlier in the season, it is a non-issue now. Enough about the offense, though, I cannot say enough about Lauren Barnes. She led Wisconsin's defense and she alone made all the difference for Wisconsin.

She was all over the court — digging, setting, passing, launching her body all over the floor to keep the ball alive. Barnes posted 19 digs on the match and deserves all the kudos there are. Her performance in the semifinal matchup was off the charts. In the second semifinal, Nebraska took down No. The hot streak continued for the Huskers, who previously downed the runner-up, Texas, on the Longhorns' home court.

Nebraska opened up the first set of the match vs. Pitt completely flat, and the Panthers cruised to a victory, dominating in pretty much every aspect of the game and putting the Huskers on their heels with their fast-paced offense and relentless attack from the left side.

It looked like there might be a different outcome, but Nebraska turned on the jets and won the next three sets to advance. The name of the game for them was blocking, defense and serving. They hit just. The Huskers put up 10 blocks and six service aces, and applied pressure on the Panthers all night long from the service line. In doing so, they slowed down Pitt's speedy offense and controlled Leketor Member-Meneh's game a bit.