Top-seeded Long Beach State and Arizona secured trips to San Diego Friday night and will meet in Thursday’s first semifinal match at 8 p.m. The winners will advance to the national championship match Saturday, Dec. 15.

NU right side hitter Nancy Metcalf pounded a match-high 25 kills on a .339 hitting percentage while adding 14 digs and a career-best service aces against the Gators Metcalf produced six kills and two service aces in the fifth, en route to earning regional all-tournament honors.

Teammates Greichaly Cepero and Jenny Kropp joined Metcalf on the all-tournament team. Cepero tallied 55 assists, seven kills and 16 digs against the Gators, while Kropp added 11 kills on a .611 hitting percentage to go along with five blocks. Sophomore outside hitter Laura Pilakowski recorded 16 kills and 16 digs for NU.

Sophomore Aury Cruz produced 31 kills for Florida and received all-tournament honors, as did junior middle blocker Nicole McCray. Colorado State freshman outside hitter Becky Sarauer also earned all-tournament honors.

The Huskers’ eighth Final Four bid did not come easily. After easy wins in games two and three, the Huskers lost the competitive third game and then dropped game four to Florida. NU, which had not played a five-game match all year, built an 8-6 lead in game five behind two kills and two service aces from Metcalf. But the Huskers found themselves down, 12-10, moments later as Cruz, Kris Bova and McCray all posted a kill. Metcalf responded with back-to-back kills to tie it at 12. After a Florida service error, Metcalf pounded another kill to bring Nebraska within a point of the win. Cruz held NU off with a kill, but Metcalf answered on the next rally with her 25th kill of the match for the 15-13, NU victory.

“When we got to the fifth game, I felt that as a senior, I needed to step up and win this,” Metcalf said. “So after a kill, you are excited that you got the kill, but you still have x amount of points left. Yes, you got a kill and that is nice, but you still have a lot of work to do to finish this.

“I was confident in our team. I knew that we were going to pull together. I never thought that we weren’t going to win the fifth game. I knew we could do it.”

The Huskers jumped to a 10-4 lead in game one and were never seriously threatened. Nebraska committed just three errors on 31 attacks in game one, swinging at a red-hot .484 clip as five NU players hit .400 or better. Conversely, the Huskers held Florida to a .114 hitting percentage.

Nebraska carried its momentum into game two, leading by 10 early. Florida cut NU’s advantage to 16-14 with Lauren Moscovic at the line, but back-to-back kills by Pilakowski and Kropp halted the run. The Huskers controlled the game from there and Kropp, Metcalf and Pilakowski all came up with big kills down the stretch. Pilakowski and Kropp combined to block Cruz for the 30-24, second-game victory.

Down by three in the third, Florida tied it at 20 when McCray sparked a 3-0 run with a kill. The score was tied three more times before Cruz broke a 26-26 deadlock with an ace serve. After an attack error by Benavia Jenkins, Cruz responded with a kill to give the Gators a one-point advantage once again. A kill by Jacque Robinson made it 29-28, Florida, but a service error by Jen Mandes postponed the Florida victory. The Gators took the 30-28, third-game win on a kill by Cruz.

In the fourth, the Huskers tied the score at 17 with a 3-0 run capped by an ace serve by Metcalf. But the Gators pulled away with the help of timely kills by Cruz. Kills by sophomore right side hitter Jacque Robinson accounted for Florida’s final two points in the 30-25, fourth-game win.

Nebraska vs. Florida Post-Match Press Conference
Nebraska Head Coach John Cook
Opening Statement:
Well I hope that everyone got their money’s worth. This is why they call it the NCAA Tournament. You have to give Florida a lot of credit. They played great in games three, four and five. I didn’t think that we were playing that bad, but they certainly stepped it up. (Aury) Cruz, as you can see, is a great player, but we have great players too who stepped it up big-time tonight.

We’ll celebrate tonight and we will go to San Diego on Monday. This is a great win. It certainly is going to prepare us for next week. We are going to be in a great frame of mind for next week, it is going to be a war. There is going to be four great teams out there, and this was great preparation.

On the momentum swing in game three:
I think that in game two we got tentative, because it was coming so easily and we missed a few serves there. Florida got some momentum by winning game three, and that carried over into game four. They started playing real well, and Cruz was awesome.

On Defending Aury Cruz:
We tried to serve her short so she couldn’t get a good approach, and we tried to put two blockers on her, but she still did a great job.

Nebraska Senior Nancy Metcalf
On game five:
When we got to the fifth game, I felt that as a senior, I needed to step up and win this. So after a kill, you are excited that you got the kill, but you still have x amount of points left. Yes, you got a kill and that is nice, but you still have a lot of work to do to finish this.

I was confident in our team. I knew that we were going to pull together. I never thought that we weren’t going to win the fifth game. I knew we could do it.

On Florida’s comeback:
I think that we knew that games one and two weren’t typical of Florida, because they are a really good team, so we knew that would come out hard. I think it was our team being tentative and them being aggressive.

On getting to the Final Four as a senior:
I am thrilled. I have been waiting for this forever it seems like. I am excited for this, and I know that our team is excited too.

Florida head Coach Mary Wise
Opening Statement:
We maintain that the SEC plays some very good volleyball, and I’d like to think that we made believers out of the Nebraska fans as well. The difference in the match was really the seven aces by Nancy Metcalf. As a fifth-year senior, she certainly lived up to all the billing. Nebraska can present so many problems for a team defensively. We had to work hard on the side-out part of the game. One of the last things that I told the team was that if we hit above .200, we win the match. We certainly were close enough, and the difference being Metcalf’s seven aces.

On Florida’s game plan:
We came out early on and tried to attack their left side. We tried to get into a passing rhythm early on. Nebraska wasn’t able to run off a long series of points. I don’t think that you can beat Nebraska just hanging balls to the outside. They are just too good a blocking team. As great as the fans here are, that team does a lot of work themselves.

On Nancy Metcalf:
That’s what a fifth-year player does. She has an abundance of talent. I’ve been a big fan of hers since I met her at the World University Games. She’s a great player, and like all great players, she makes the players around her better.

Source: University of Nebraska Athletic Dept.

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