Number One Nebraska Volleyball 2015 NCAA Champions

NE B R A S K A V OLLE Y B A LL

2015 N C A A C H A M P I ONS

NUMBER ONE! jeff sheldon

NUMBER ONE! NE B R A S K A V OLLE Y B A LL • 2 0 1 5 N C A A C H A M P I ONS

jeff sheldon

table of contents 2 embracing an ambitious goal 8 Putting the Pieces Together 14 FINDING AN IDENTITY 24 learning hard lessons 36 rebuilding ultimate trust 50 tearing through the tourney 66 bringing home a title 80 nothing left to do but dance 92 credits & photographers index On preceding page, Justine Wong-Orantes, Kelsey Fien, Kadie Rolfzen and Amber Rolfzen celebrate a point.

Left, the Nebraska volleyball team is introduced before its NCAA championship match against Texas at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha.

NUMBER ONE!

By Jeff Sheldon

Editor Dan Sullivan Designer Christine Zueck-Watkins Photo imaging Jolene McHugh Executive editor Mike Reilly President and publisher Terry Kroeger

Copyright 2016. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior consent of the publisher, the Omaha World-Herald.

Omaha World-Herald, 1314 Douglas St., Omaha, NE 68102-1811 First Edition ISBN: 978-0-692-62399-2 Printed by Walsworth Publishing Co., Marceline, MO

Putting the Pieces Together --------------Nebraska’s goal of making it to the Final Four in Omaha wasn’t going to stay inside the locker room.

“As a player, I want my coach to have (the Final Four) as my goal. I don’t want it to be just, ‘Let’s beat this certain team.’

I want the goal at the end to be on top.”

— Alicia Ostrander

“It’s like buying an airline ticket — if you don’t have a destination, you have nowhere to go,” coach John Cook said at media day in August. “We know what our destination is, and we want to pick up a Big Ten championship on the way to get there.”

Cook described his team with words like “poise” and “wisdom,” both of which had been hard-earned the previous year.

He praised his returning players, but one of the biggest pieces was sophomore setter Kelly Hunter, who was taking over the starting job after redshirting in 2014. Teammates were already mentioning the Papillion-La Vista South graduate for her personality and leadership.

Though Hunter didn’t know it when she talked to reporters that day in August, Cook had named her a team captain along with senior Alicia Ostrander.

“She’s got the confidence, the maturity and all that to really lead this team and be a high-level setter and a really good volleyball player,” Cook said of Hunter.

Ostrander also was ready to lead, even if that meant the weight of Final Four ambitions.

“As a player, I want my coach to have that as my goal,” Ostrander said. “I don’t want it to be just, ‘Let’s beat this certain team.’ I want the goal at the end to be on top.”

Cook began practice determined to implement the changes needed to reach the team’s goals.

For years, he had groused about the number of substitutes in NCAA volleyball compared with the international game. He felt an abundance of subs allowed college coaches to rely on specialists, giving an advantage to teams that could recruit the most dynamic attackers.

But Cook had now accepted that the substitution rules weren’t changing anytime soon, and he had reconstructed the roster by recruiting more smaller, quicker defensive specialists to play in the back row and sub in for the taller hitters. The team’s emphasis would be on passing, serving and digging.

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The 2015 Huskers gather at the beginning of practice in August. Back row, from left: Head coach John Cook, assistant coach Dani Busboom Kelly, director of operations Lindsay Peterson, Olivia Boender, Alicia Ostrander, Cecilia Hall, Kelsey Fien, Mikaela Foecke, Kadie Rolfzen, Meghan Haggerty, assistant coach Chris Tamas and athletic trainer Jolene Emricson. Front row, from left: Briana Holman, Amber Rolfzen, Brooke Smith, Kelly Hunter, Justine Wong-Orantes, Sydney Townsend, Annika Albrecht, Kenzie Maloney and Tiani Reeves.

“I’ve been telling you guys for a couple years, Russ (Rose) has figured it out at Penn State,” Cook said to reporters, referring to the coach of the 2013 and ’14 national champion. “He’s got his big people, and then he’s got all these little people he can put in. We finally have recruited. Now, we’ve got some exceptional little people who can come in and make a difference in the back row. It took us awhile to figure that out.”

NU’s back-row depth would be led by junior libero Justine Wong-Orantes, who had started the past two seasons. But Cook also was impressed with the improvement in the offseason by sophomore defensive specialists Sydney Townsend and Annika Albrecht. And freshman Kenzie Maloney was making an immediate impact after playing libero for the U.S. youth national team. Cook couldn’t hide his excitement about the results he was seeing from the team’s offseason workouts.

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#10 Alicia Ostrander DIDN’T JOIN THE CLUB Ostrander passed on club volleyball for a standout basketball career at tiny Gordon-Rushville in northwest Nebraska.

In the summer of 2015 she took part in a U.S. Collegiate National Team training program. “She was probably the only player in that program that had never played club volleyball,” John Cook said.

The former walk-on held her own among the 35 other players at the event in New Orleans. The group was split into three teams, and Ostrander helped her Blue squad to a 3-0 finish and first place in the tournament. “It was a great experience,” Ostrander said. “I’ve never done anything with USA Volleyball before.”

“I think I can speak for the team that I don’t think we’ve ever felt pressure.

We’ve just taken each game at a time and focused on that, keeping in mind with our small breakdown huddles that this is where we want to be at the end of the season.”

— Alicia Ostrander

6’3” \\ Outside Hitter \\ SENIOR \\ GORDON

The Huskers’ most athletic position was middle blocker, where senior Cecilia Hall and LSU transfer Briana Holman wowed NU’s strength coaches with their explosiveness. Kadie Rolfzen said Holman nearly touched 11 feet during jump testing.

“Cici broke records, and Cici’s already like ‘freak mode,’ ” Cook said. “I heard she broke a record, then Bri broke her record. They were like trading records back and forth.”

Kadie Rolfzen said her twin, Amber, narrowly edged Kadie’s school record in the 10-yard sprint, while Kadie came close to her own personal record in the vertical jump.

“Two of the players who I think are a good barometer for our team are Kadie and Amber,” Cook said. “They’re a good example that they realize now they can’t just rely on their talent. They’ve got to work hard.”

Nebraska fans got their first glimpse of the 2015 team in action two weeks later at the Red-White scrimmage, which allowed Cook to give a hard look at several players battling for starting spots.

“I thought there were some really great things that happened,” Cook said. “We had a lot of players who were really solid.”

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One was Albrecht, who had come to NU in 2014 as a walk-on and played as a back row and serving substitute. She stepped up at the scrimmage, finishing with nine kills. Did her solid showing make an argument for more playing time?

She began to provide a humble response, but her teammates cut her off.

“I think she did,” middle blocker Hall interjected.

“I think she did,” echoed freshman outside hitter Mikaela Foecke.

While Cook was pleased with his options at outside hitter, the picture was mixed at middle blocker, where Hall, Amber Rolfzen and Meghan Haggerty competed.

“We’ll let those guys go at it and see who wants it,” Cook said.

He saved his highest praise for WongOrantes, who was pressed into duty at the scrimmage as a setter, a position she hadn’t played since high school.

“She does everything,” Cook said.

“Whatever we ask her to do, she does it.”

John Cook found plenty of things to hold his attention The scrimmage also allowed the at the Red-White scrimmage. newcomers to get a chance to see big-time volleyball firsthand. The crowd of 5,148 fans at the Devaney Center impressed Foecke. “I don’t think there’s any place in the country like this,” Foecke said. “For a scrimmage that most teams probably get a few hundred people, for us to get a few thousand, that’s pretty awesome and something special we have going here.”

While Cook admitted he wished the team had an extra week of practice, his look at footage from the intrasquad scrimmage showed that the Huskers’ fundamentals might have been ahead of schedule.

“I was probably more pleased after watching it with some of the good things we’re doing.

We’re serving and passing well,” Cook said, and added, “I think our blocking looks really good.”

“She does everything.

Whatever we ask her to do, she does it.

Everything she does, she’s just a really, really good volleyball player.”

— John Cook, praising junior libero Justine Wong-Orantes

But who would be doing the blocking at the season-opening Nebraska Invite remained in question.

Cook hoped his starters would emerge from the taxing “trash can drill.” The grueling hitting exercise got its name from sending worn-out players in search of the nearest trash can if they were about to lose their lunch.

Cook also put Hall, Amber Rolfzen and Haggerty through what he called “mano a mano” competition. “Cici versus Meg. Meg versus Amber, here we go. You guys get after it and see who wants to fight.”

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#4 Justine Wong-Orantes

NO-LOOK PASSES Wong-Orantes has shown a knack for chasing down digs by teammates well behind the end line of the court and arcing the ball back over her head in perfect position for one of NU’s outside hitters to get a kill. “It’s super scary, I’m not going to lie,” NU outside hitter Kelsey Fien said. “It’s one of those things where you’ve just got to trust it because we practice stuff like that where we set out of system.”

“It gets in the other opponents’ heads that they have to change up shots on defense when we’re digging their hard hits. It kind of lowers their confidence a little bit.”

— Justine Wong-Orantes

5’6” \\ Libero \\ JUNIOR \\ Cypress, CalifORNIA

The other starting battle was for the second outside hitter spot, alongside All-American Kadie Rolfzen. Senior Kelsey Fien had been All-Big Ten the previous year, but sophomore Albrecht was emerging with a strong preseason camp. Cook also said he would have no hesitation putting Olivia Boender into a match on the outside. The redshirt freshman from Waverly, Nebraska, had eight kills during the Red-White scrimmage.

“She’s solid,” Cook said of Boender. “She’s been training great. She passes, she serves, she plays defense, she’s a six-rotation player.”

Cook said his priority was to find the Huskers’ best passing lineup, the players who could dig a ball and direct it successfully to the setter. He believed it would help take pressure off first-year starting setter Hunter.

“So if that means we give up a little of something in the back row as an attacker, we might do that,” he said.

Olivia Boender excelled in the preseason scrimmage.

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New gear at the Devaney Center The sights and sounds were brighter and louder at the Devaney Center this season. The arena featured a new four-sided videoboard, suspended prominently over the middle of the court to display replays and highlights. A new sound system also debuted, with speakers positioned throughout the arena instead of clustered in the middle of the ceiling as in previous years.

5

Number

RANKED

Nebraska began the 2015 season tied for No. 5 with Big Ten rival Wisconsin in the AVCA preseason coaches poll.

Voters rewarded the Huskers for bringing back five starters from the previous season, plus 6-3 freshman Mikaela Foecke, the nation’s No. 2-ranked recruit.

Penn State, the defending national champion, retained the No. 1 spot in the preseason poll, despite losing national player of the year Micha Hancock and first-team All-American Nia Grant.

The Huskers had started 2014 ranked No. 7 but lost their first two matches and never climbed higher than eighth in the poll after that.

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Sounds like a broken record The first time the Final Four came to Omaha in 2006, a crowd of 17,014 — the most ever to watch an NCAA match — saw Nebraska top UCLA in the semifinals.

That record was surpassed two days later, when 17,209 watched Nebraska beat Stanford to win the school’s third national championship.

When the finals returned to Omaha in 2008, another record-setting crowd — 17,430 — watched the Huskers battle Penn State in a thrilling semifinal before falling.

The 2015 Final Four in Omaha was another record setter.

The Nebraska-Kansas semifinal match at the CenturyLink Center raised the mark to 17,551.

That was topped two nights later by a crowd of 17,561 for the Nebraska-Texas championship match.

The Final Four records set in Omaha are the five biggest crowds ever to watch NCAA volleyball, and they’re most likely the biggest crowds ever to watch the sport in the United States.

bringing home a title --------------On stages big and small, in the early season and postseason, Texas had been a puzzle to Nebraska volleyball for the previous seven years. The Longhorns had won five straight meetings and nine of the past 10, beating NU in every month and each venue where the teams would play.

But on a Saturday night in December, on the biggest stage in college volleyball, Nebraska finally solved the riddle. The Huskers overcame each past Texas torment and vanquished every burnt-orange demon by winning the most-coveted match in series history, and with it, the national championship.

Kelsey Fien takes a picture of the crowd waiting to greet the team as it arrives at the CenturyLink Center.

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The Huskers receive the red-carpet treatment as they arrive for the championship match.

The Huskers captured their fourth NCAA title behind a stunning performance by freshman outside hitter Mikaela Foecke, whose 19 kills propelled Nebraska to a 25-23, 25-23, 25-21 victory.

Backed by an NCAA-record crowd of 17,561 fans who redefined noise at a college volleyball match, Nebraska paid back Texas for the five-set loss in Austin on the second weekend of the season. But in that meeting, the Huskers hadn’t yet settled on the lineup that would bring them to this championship night. On Labor Day weekend, Foecke had still been a right-side hitter and had recorded just seven kills.

Saturday, the small-towner from West Point, Iowa, would surpass that total in the first set alone with eight kills on her first 12 swings. By the intermission, the Huskers had taken the first two nip-and-tuck sets by turning to their freshman for fearless swings at gut-check moments.

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Above, Mikaela Foecke blasted 19 kills past the Longhorns. On facing page, Amber Rolfzen delivers one of her 10 kills against Texas. Foecke, Amber Rolfzen, Kelly Hunter and Justine Wong-Orantes were named to the all-tournament team.

Back-to-back Texas kills cut Nebraska’s lead to 21-18 before the Rolfzens put the trophy a point away from Nebraska’s grasp. Amber pounded a kill off the Longhorns’ block into the antenna, followed by an audacious tip by Kadie from the back row that fell on the Texas sideline for a 23-18 Husker lead. When Amber drilled her final kill of the night, blasting a thunderous swing to the center of the Texas court, the Huskers led 24-19 with five championship points.

Two straight Longhorn kills led Cook to call a timeout to draw up a final play.

But the din of the record crowd grew louder during the break, with the chant of “Go Big Red!” echoing off the rafters of the CenturyLink Center. Afterward, players would admit their coach’s last instructions were largely drowned out by the crowd.

There was no need for talking. In the huddle, the players met each other’s gazes.

“I think we all just looked each other in the eye, and we didn’t really care what the score was,” Amber Rolfzen said. “We knew we had match point, and we knew we were going to win.”

Kelly Hunter battles a pair of Longhorns at the net.

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The final honor went to senior Kelsey Fien, who also had scored the final kill of the regional final victory over Washington in Lexington, Kentucky. Fien pounded a ball between two Texas blockers to ignite the night’s loudest powder keg of sound and send the Husker bench crashing onto the court to celebrate.

Instantly, players and coaches were covered in gold and silver streamers that dropped from the ceiling.

“It’s hard to put into words the environment tonight,” Cook said. “The setting, Nebraska versus Texas and the crowd, a national championship match, ESPN — everything that went with it. For us to come out and play a great match against a great team, it was just awesome to see.”

Kenzie Maloney delivers a pass on target.

Maloney celebrates a point won by the Huskers.

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Amber and Kadie Rolfzen helped key a defensive effort that held Texas to a .215 hitting percentage.

delight and disappointment Gold and silver streamers fell from the ceiling at the end of the match. The Husker bench spilled onto the court for hugs of congratulation. For the Longhorns, it was consolation.

From the very beginning, the 2015 Nebraska volleyball team had one goal: Make it to Omaha, the site of the NCAA Final Four.

Writer Jeff Sheldon and World-Herald photographers help you relive the journey that led to the pinnacle of college volleyball.

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