LEXINGTON, Ky. - As John Cook pedaled on his stationary bike, the Nebraska volleyball coach kept replaying the disappointing end to last season. Cook said he's watched his recording of the Huskers' 3-0 loss to BYU in the 2014 regional final "eight or nine times."
He sees the mistakes on a loop. He watches Nebraska pass errantly, serve timidly and commit errors frequently. That night in Seattle, NU was outblocked 12-8 and hit .173 to miss out on advancing to the final four. NU hasn't reached the final weekend since 2008.
"It was a good match to learn from," Cook said. "I think in the regionals is when your flaws come out. This is the most pressured weekend of the year. Your flaws come out. The things you do well show up."
The Huskers feel they are markedly better this season in the areas that broke down in their final match a year ago. The addition of freshman defensive specialist Kenzie Maloney and a back row with another year's seasoning has improved the team's passing. Strong serving now is one of NU's hallmarks, and Amber Rolfzen's move to middle blocker has given Nebraska an athletic defensive force at the net.
No. 4-seeded Nebraska (28-4) will see if it is better suited to beating the Cougars on Friday when the rematch comes in a 4 p.m. NCAA regional semifinal at the University of Kentucky's Memorial Coliseum. Cook has withheld any public mention of the obvious revenge storyline, but it's clear the NU players are eager to get a chance at redemption against BYU (28-3), which returns the core of last year's NCAA runner-up team.
"We have a little bit of revenge, so we'll have that on our mind as well," junior libero Justine Wong-Orantes said.
A year ago, Nebraska faced BYU the night after upsetting Washington, the Seattle region's top seed, in the sweet 16. Players admitted they considered the Huskies the primary hurdle of that weekend, and after NU pulled out a four-set win, the Huskers had little left in the emotional tank 24 hours later.
"I think mentally last year we definitely had that thought, that our hard challenge was first," Kadie Rolfzen said this week. "Usually you play harder teams as you go on in the tournament, and that was definitely a mindset we had. I just think we were just looking ahead a little too much last year and not focusing on BYU."
This week, there was no question the Huskers have zeroed in on the Cougars. At a Thursday press conference in Lexington, neither Cook nor three players brought up a possible Saturday regional final match against either No. 5-seeded Washington or Big Ten rival Ohio State, which beat the Huskers this season. The Huskies and Buckeyes play in Friday's second regional semifinal.
Instead, all focus was on the Cougars, who again are on a final four trajectory despite the graduation of first-team All-America opposite hitter Jennifer Hamson from last year's team and a change at coach. This season, BYU is led by Heather Olmstead, an assistant last year who took over the program when the previous coach, her brother Shawn, took over the BYU men's volleyball team.
There is little mystery to Nebraska's task Friday. Cougars senior outside hitter Alexa Gray has gone over, around and through teams all season to the tune of 5.2 kills per set, which ranks second in the NCAA. Gray will get swings in all six rotations, and she's taken 36 percent of the team's attempts this year. In back-to-back wins over Portland and Gonzaga in November, Gray took 150 attempts combined.
"She's just like a machine," Olmstead said Thursday. "She's jumping just as high or higher at the end of a match than she is at the beginning. Physically, I think she's just very gifted and she's able to take a heavy load."
This season, Nebraska largely has been successful at not letting an opponent's main attacker dominate a match. With the exception of Texas' Ebony Nwanebu, who had 22 kills and hit .315 against NU in September, the Huskers' defense has prevented one hitter from carrying an opponent to victory.
Limiting Gray on Friday would go a long way toward helping NU repay BYU for last year's loss, and give Cook some more satisfying viewing content for the next time he decides to work up a sweat.
"The bottom line is BYU has been up there," Cook said. "They're the one who set the standard last year, and we've got to go after them and try and get them. It's another opportunity for us to see if we can play a better match than we did last year."
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