Nebraska Completes Dream Season

Greichaly Cepero woke up one morning with a preseason premonition: Nebraska was going to win the NCAA women’s volleyball tournament.

The vision came to her during a team trip to China.

“I just knew we would win the national championship,” said Cepero, selected as tournament most valuable player after her team rallied to defeat Wisconsin, 15-9, 9-15, 7-15, 15-2, 15-9.

“We had the people and the chemistry. We were committed to work hard and believe in each other,” Cepero said.

Her team never doubted--including Coach John Cook, who closed out his first season with the Cornhuskers after leaving Wisconsin.

“It was hard,” he said. “My hat’s off to Wisconsin. They stressed us like no other team this year.”

The Cornhuskers (34-0) became the second team to win the tournament and go undefeated. The Badgers finished 33-4.

“Obviously, we’re disappointed,” Wisconsin Coach Pete Waite said. “We ran out of gas a little bit. We were passing, digging and sagging defensively. We tried to make people chase us at the block.”

Despite losing Claudia Rodriguez to injury in the first game, and with the injured Meggan Kohnen playing at 85%, Waite said his short-handed team made a “gutsy effort.”

“Nebraska is a great team. They pose a lot of problems,” he said. “We just struggled with ball control.”

Laura Pilakowski had 23 kills for Nebraska, including the match winner.

In the fifth game, Nebraska scored the first four points, two on kills by Pilakowski. The Cornhuskers never trailed and scored six of the last nine points. “Nebraska came out strong,” Wisconsin’s Lizzy Fitzgerald said. “It was hard to come back down 4-0.”

Nebraska’s Pilakowski, Cepero and Amber Holmquist were named to the all-tournament team, along with Wisconsin’s Fitzgerald and Sherisa Livingston, and Hawaii’s Lily Kahumoka.