The Nebraska
volleyball team
celebrates the
game winning
point in the
NCAA champi
onship match in
Richmond, Va.
The Huskers fin
ished the season
uniMutaH
uiiyvivaicu^
only the second
team in NCAA
history to do so.
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Huskers outlast UW for title
BY BRIAN CHRBTOPHERSON
Long, long ago, while UNL stu
dents were sweating through first
semester final exams, the Cornhusker
volleyball team left for the Final Four
In Richmond, Va. in hopes of passing
their final tests.
Unlike most UNL students, how
ever, the Nebraska volleyball team
served up an ace on the tests put
before them, scoring a perfect 34-0
season.
The Comhuskers claimed the sec
ond national championship in school
listory by beating Wisconsin 15-9,9
15,7-15,15-2,15-9. \
It wasn’t an easy romp through the
Virginia woods for NU, though.
Husker fans everywhere had to
:esort to die rally caps in the champi
onship match.
Nebraska first-year Coach John
Cook saw his No. 1 ranked Huskers
spot his former Wisconsin team a 2-1
ead in games.
“Isn't this some irony?” a
iVisconsin fan yelled from the stands.
“I probably had an ulcer,” Cook
said. “I had been dreading this match.
Sow bad do you think they want to
oeat Nebraska with me being the
:oach there?”
Pretty bad. And when Wisconsin’s
unior outside hitter Sherisa
Livingston hammered one of her team
Scott McQwg/DN
Senior hitter Angie Oxley smashes a Mil over Wisconsin blockers during the championship match.
The match was the last for seniors Oxley, Kim Behrends and Jill McWilliams.
high 19 kills to end game three, it
looked as if the Big Red of the North
might laugh last.
"We were passing and scrapping
defensively, and that's the kind of ball
we play best,” Wisconsin Coach Pete
Waite said. “We were making them
chase us with our block.”
Nebraska had rallied from behind
before, overcoming a 2-1 deficit in the
second round of the NCAA tourna
ment against South Carolina, but NU
seemed to be displaying champi
onship nerves, struggling to even pass
the ball consistently.
The nerves never seemed so obvi
ous as when NU’s senior rightside hit
ter Angie Oxley, one of the best passers
on the team, gave the Badgers two free
aces by mishandling serves.
“I was not relaxed at all,” Oxley
said.
Please see VICTORY on 9
r*-'
Scott McOurg/DN
2000 title start of
Cook, NU dynasty
Those dadgum corn-fed 1
Nebraska girls have shaken up the f
volleyball world.
There's an eerie sense around i
the country that the Nebraska 2000 1
national championship run wasn't [|
a one-time dead.
Nebraska has always been a Efrfert
top-flight volleyball program, but CMsIoptaraon
one Hawaii media member said it ■himh
best as he watched this Nebraska
ensemble dog-pile each other after concluding a
perfect 34-0 season.
“Dynasty.”
Quite a word to throw around. Dynasty. It
seems so Chicago Bulls to say.
But when you're talking women’s volleyball
right now, you’re talking about Nebraska.
You're talking about its coach, John Cook. Cook
said he came to Nebraska to win a national cham
pionship.
But in one year? And without a loss? Combined
with the Coach-of-the-Year award?
The only problem facing Cook is how he tops
this inaugural season of butt-kicking.
Maybe Cook will tie the girls' hands behind
their backs next year just to make things interest
ing. ,
Unlikely though.
Nebraska figures to be shooting for perfection
again next year and the year after and.
Cook wouldn’t have it any other way.
Please see DYNASTY on 9
Season to
remember
forHusIfers
BY BRIAN CHRISTOPHERSON
If only the Nebraska faithful
had been at that dinner table in
China.
Yes, if all the fans dressed in
red could have been the person
passing the dinner rolls to
Greichaly Cepero on that sum
mer evening in that China
restaurant, they may have felt a
little more comfortable about
the upcoming season.
The Nebraska volleyball
team was celebrating a success
ful team trip to China with a trip
ending team dinner, and sopho
more setter Greichaly Cepero
took the spotlight like a best
man at a wedding celebration.
Cook remembers the day as
if it were yesterday....
“Greicha stood up in front of
the team and said, ‘We will win
the national championship/
recalled Cook. “I think it takes a
special kind of leader, being the
setter on the team ... to make
that statement and back it up...
and her team believed in her."
Granted, such a statement
would seem a no-brainer after
the season was written.
However, this was presea
son, Nancy Meendering was an
almost certain redshirt due to
Olympic tryouts and many
Nebraska fans didn’t even know
a girl named Laura Pilakowski
existed.
National championship?
“I knew we would,” Cepero
said. “We had the people, our
chemistry... on that China trip,
I realized that we were commit
ted to work hard for each other
and that we were going to do
this.”
Nebraska players couldn’t
help but think Cepero was right
If they could survive a trip to
China together, the Kansas
States, the Texas Techs, the
Hawaiis were nothing but a
small blip on the radar screen.
"We all agreed with
Greicha,” sophomore middle
blocker Amber Holmquist said.
“That last night in China....we
survived...we were caught
halfway around the world and
we were still not sick of each
other.
“We knew we were going to
come together and we knew we
had something special.”
Making believers
Please see SEASON on 9
NU comes up just short against Mizzou
■ The Comhuskers control
most of the road contest buta
season-high 24 turnovers,
including seven by Cookie
Belcher, doom Nebraska.
BY JOSHUA CAMENZND
COLUMBIA, Mo. - For the
second straight road game, the
Nebraska basketball team
received a crash course on the
importance of taking care of the
basketball.
As is the norm this season,
the Huskers did not do it and
paid for it dearly - dropping
their conference opener 68-66
to Missouri on Saturday night
behind a season-high 24
turnovers.
“We have the talent to play
with anybody but you can't win
any games turning the ball over
like we did," guard Cookie
Belcher said.
Despite the turnovers,
Nebraska still had several
chances to shock the 13,496 fans
at the Hearnes Center in the
final seconds.
Down 68-66, the Huskers got
another shot at a win or tie after
Steffon Bradford turned it over
Missouri 68
Nebraska 66
on their previous possession
when Mizzou gaurd Clarence
Gilbert missed the front end of a
one-and-one with 10.6 seconds
remaining.
Following a timeout, John
Robinson’s three-point attempt
was knocked out of bounds by
Mizzou’s Brian Grawer with 1.7
seconds left.
Missouri Coach Quin Snyder
chose to place Ihjudeen Soyoye,
a 6-foot-9 forward, in front of
the inbounds pass and it paid off
as Robinson’s lob to Kimani
Ffriend was picked off by Soyoye
in midair and the Tigers escaped
with the win.
“We came into what could
be the toughest place to play in
the Big 12 Conference, and we
had a shot to win it," said Cary
Cochran, who was five of five on
3-pointers for 15 points in the
game. “If you asked every team
in America coming into this
game what they would ask for,
that is what they would want."
But the Huskers almost got
more than they asked for as it
was NU that stunned the crowd
while consistently keeping
Mizzou at arms length for much
of the first half.
The Tigers led briefly - for
only 18 seconds to be exact - in
the half after Kareem Rush’s 3
point play made it 16-14 MU at
the 9:19 mark. But Brian Conklin
responded with a jumper and
NU capped a 16-4 run with
Cochran’s fourth 3-pointer of
the half to take a 30-20 lead over
Mizzou. NU led 34-26 at the half.
“I thought we played great
defense in the first half,” said
Collier, whose team limited
Mizzou to 27-percent shooting
from the field in the opening
stanza. “In the second half we
didri't stop them and I thought
that (Kareem) Rush’s penetra
tion was really big for them.”
Indeed, Rush, the Big 12’s
leading scorer at 21.6 points per
game, did come up big for the
Tigers with 30 points.
But as much as Rush hurt
the Huskers, NU poured salt on
its own wounds, committing 16
of its 24 turnovers in the first half
when it had a chance to extehd
its lead.
Belcher was guilty of seven
of the 24 giveaways, the result of
a physical matchup with
Mizzou’s Gilbert. Nebraska’s
Please see MISSOURI on11
Raiola hears NFL call, leaves NU
BY SEAN CALLAHAN
On Dec. 15 All-American
center Dominic Raiola said he
had no intentions of skipping his
senior season to enter the NFL
draft.
But from his home in
Honolulu, Hawaii on Thursday,
Raiola decided the best thing for
him to do was to forgo his senior
season and enter the NFL draft.
"Without question, this was
by far the hardest decision I have
ever had to make,” Raiola said. "I
have gotten so attached to this
university. The players and
coaches have done so much for
me. I have wonderful memories
from Nebraska, and I’ll always
be a Husker.
"But I feel it is in my best
interest to leave at this time. It is
certainly not anything against
the university or coaches, this is
just a lifelong dream for me, and
I’m anxious to get started on my
NFL career.”
Raiola is projected by most
draft experts as a late first- to
early second-round selection.
In the past eight years, only
one center has been drafted in
the first round. '
After doing his homework
and talking to many experts,
Hanging It Up
Ear Dominic Raiola
Ahman Green
Lawrence Phillips
Calvin Jones
Derek Brown
Johnny Mitchell
These Comh left tor
the NFL after
Delan Lonowski/DN
Raiola said his stock as an NFL
center really can't get any higher.
“I think it’s a lot harder for a
center to get drafted in the first
round," Raiola said. “I under
stand the center position in the
draft lately, and when it comes
down to it you have to play
through your first contract.
“Look at Grant Wistrom. He
played through his first contract
and now he’s going to get anoth
er big contract."
Nebraska Coach Frank
Solich calls Raiola one of the best
centers to ever play the game for
the Huskers.
Solich said his spot will defi
nitely be a hard one to fill.
“We are sorry to see Dominic
go, but we wish him the best,”
Scott McClurg/DN
Nebraska junior center Dominic Raiola
announced Thursday that he will be
eligible for this spring^ NFL Draft
Solich said. “I am sure he will
have a successful NFL career. He
has been outstanding for us at
the University of Nebraska-one
of the best centers we have ever
! had. ,
"His athleticism and his
leadership have played an
extremely important role in the
years that he has played for us at
Nebraska."
