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SEMIFINAL SWEEP! Nebraska Beats Pitt in Final Four

Husker volleyball is in the national title match for the 11th time

Kaleb Henry

Nebraska Athletics photo

Nebraska volleyball is one match away from a national championship.

A dominant defensive effort saw NU beat Pittsburg 25-20, 23, 17 Thursday evening in the national semifinals in Tampa, Florida. The Huskers have earned a spot in their 11th national title match.

Nebraska used 15 blocks, including eight in the first set, to hold Pitt to .137 hitting. NU hit .245 for the match.

Harper Murray notched a match-high 13 kills. Marritt Beason and Ally Batenhorst were next with eight kills each. Bekka Allick had team-high seven blocks to go with match-high hitting of .571.

Pitt ends its season at 29-5. Nebraska (33-1) advances to Sunday's national title match against Texas. The Longhorns (27-4) eliminated Wisconsin in four sets in Thursday's second semifinal match.

Nebraska post-match notes

  • With the win, Nebraska advanced to an NCAA Final for the 11th time in program history and for the fifth time in the past nine seasons. NU improved to 11-6 all-time in NCAA Semifinal matches, with the 11 trips to the NCAA Final ranking second in NCAA Division I history.
  • The Huskers have won their last four NCAA Semifinal matchups and five of their last six.
  • John Cook has led Nebraska to an NCAA Final for the eighth time in his 24 seasons. Cook is the third Division I coach to take one school to eight NCAA Finals, joining Russ Rose (10 at Penn State) and Don Shaw (8 at Stanford). Overall, Cook’s eight trips to the NCAA Final are tied with Shaw for third all-time among Division I coaches.
  • With the win, Nebraska improved to 33-1 on the season. The 33 wins tie for the second-most victories for Nebraska during the NCAA era (1981-present), one shy of the 34 wins by the 2000 Huskers.
  • Nebraska improved to 130-36 all-time in the NCAA Tournament. The Huskers joined Stanford (138 wins) as the only two Division I programs with 130 NCAA Tournament wins.
  • NU improved to 14-0 all-time against Pittsburgh, including a 5-0 mark in the NCAA Tournament.
  • The Huskers moved to 11-0 all-time against ACC teams in the NCAA Tournament.
  • John Cook improved to 89-19 in the NCAA Tournament as Nebraska’s head coach. He moved to 97-24 in his NCAA Tournament career. Cook ranks second all-time in career NCAA Tournament victories and NCAA Tournament wins at one school.
  • Tonight marked John Cook’s 850th career victory (including his seven seasons at Wisconsin). Cook is just the 14th coach in NCAA Division I history to win 850 matches. He joins Florida’s Mary Wise (1,045) and Florida State’s Chris Poole (918) as the only active Division I head coach with 850 career wins.
  • The Huskers won the first two sets against Pittsburgh and improved to 101-1 in the NCAA Tournament when taking a 2-0 lead. Nebraska has won 100 consecutive postseason matches when winning the first two sets.
  • Nebraska had eight blocks in set one. That was a higher total than the Huskers had in 11 matches this season.
  • The Huskers recorded their 10th block on the 50th rally of the match. NU finished with 15 blocks, its fourth straight match with double-digit kills and 14th on the season.
  • In addition to the 15 blocks against Pitt, Nebraska had 17 blocks in its last match against Arkansas. The Huskers have recorded 15 blocks in consecutive matches for the first time since back-to-back matches against Michigan (15) and Illinois (16) in November of 2014.
  • Nebraska held Pittsburgh to a .137 attack percentage, which marked the Panthers' second-lowest percentage of the season and lowest since their season opener against BYU.
  • Bekka Allick had 10 blocks in the match, which tied the Nebraska all-time record for blocks in a three-set NCAA Tournament match. Only three times prior to tonight had a Husker had 10 stuffs in a three-set NCAA Tournament match: Melissa Elmer twice during the 2005 NCAA Tournament (Duke and Florida) and Amber Rolfzen in a 2014 first-round match against Hofstra.
  • Allick now has 22 blocks in her last two matches, averaging 3.1 blocks per set.
  • Allick and fellow middle Andi Jackson combined to hit .563 in the match with nine kills on 16 error-free swings.
  • Merritt Beason had four service aces in the match. The four aces were her most as a Husker and tied her career high.
  • Lexi Rodriguez had 14 digs in the match to increase her career total to 1,418. Rodriguez passed Kenzie Maloney (1,406) and Jordan Larson (1,410) to move into fifth place on Nebraska’s all-time digs list.
Nebraska Athletics photo

Fans fans greet the team as the Huskers arrive at Amalie Arena in Tampa.

Nebraska Athletics photo

Player introductions take place before Thursday night's semifinal match.

Nebraska Athletics photo

The Huskers' Harper Murray attempts a kill against the Panthers.

Nebraska Athletics photo

Husker players celebrate a point won.

Nebraska Athletics photo

Nebraska players are all smiles after sweeping the Panthers. 

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Kaleb Henry
KALEB HENRY

Kaleb Henry is an award-winning sports reporter, covering collegiate athletics since 2014 via radio, podcasting, and digital journalism. His experience with Big Ten Conference teams goes back more than a decade, including time covering programs such as the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Oregon Ducks, and USC Trojans. He has contributed to Sports Illustrated since 2021. Kaleb has won multiple awards for his sports coverage from the Nebraska Broadcasters Association and Midwest Broadcast Journalists Association. Prior to working in sports journalism, Kaleb was a Division I athlete on the Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville Track and Field team where he discussed NCAA legislation as SIUE's representative to the Ohio Valley Conference Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. 

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