MINNEAPOLIS -- The dogpile commenced in record time Saturday night, because Nebraska's reserves rushed the net in less than three seconds. At the bottom of the pile, on her back, laughing, lay outside hitter Mikaela Foecke, who moments later would be named the most outstanding player of the Minneapolis Regional.
Her position at the bottom was appropriate, since Foecke and Kenzie Maloney, Nebraska's captains and seniors, laid the foundation for the Huskers' fourth consecutive NCAA volleyball final four appearance.
The seventh-seeded Huskers dispatched 15th-seeded Oregon in the regional final in the manner one would expect from a defending national champion -- in straight sets, by winning most of the big points down the stretch. That wasn't the team Nebraska coach John Cook thought he had in October, when Nebraska went 3-5 in Big Ten play.
The issue? Inexperience. Five of the 10 players Cook put on the floor Saturday were new this year: four freshmen, plus sophomore Lexi Sun, a transfer from Texas. And two sophomores, middle blocker Lauren Stivrins and outside hitter Jazz Sweet, had assumed bigger roles.
Now Cook calls his team the most improved in the country, and it's easy to see why. That Nebraska, the nation's top defensive team, brings a 12-match winning streak to the final four in Minneapolis and hasn't lost since Oct. 27 says as much about the example set by Foecke and Maloney as anything. Over the past four seasons, the Huskers are 51-2 in November and December with them in the lineup.
"These guys deserved the credit for the leadership they bring every day, and how they work," Cook said. "Really impressive."
Foecke said she, Maloney and others with experience started the groundwork in spring drills, reinforcing three of Cook's basic rules. Be on time. Block every ball. And talk after every touch.
"It sounds plain and simple, but there are a lot of teams that don't do that," Foecke said.
"Having such a young team and so many new players, it can be hard to establish a culture. We've worked really hard together to get the culture that we want. Working on our bonds both on and off the court -- that has really been showing now on the court. That's what we want to see."
Cook said a five-set victory at home Nov. 2 over Penn State, which had beaten Nebraska in State College a month before, got things rolling. Nebraska hasn't lost since. Saturday, the Huskers did what championship teams do: win the hard points. Nebraska trailed early in the first two sets before coming back and finishing nearly flawlessly.
In the first set, Oregon committed three attack errors and one service error on Nebraska's final five points to lose 25-22. In Set 2, tied 23-23, Nebraska won on a kill by Foecke and a tip by Stivrins. The spent Ducks had little left in the third, hitting .150 and losing 25-17.
The Nebraska celebration quickly moved from the court to the locker room.
"A lot of smiles, a lot of jokes, a lot of hugs," Stivrins said. "I'm not usually a person who likes hugs, but we were happy, and everyone was getting hugs."
Although they were playing about 430 miles from Lincoln, the Huskers found plenty of support. More than 2,000 red-clad Nebraska fans filled out the crowd of 4,806 at Maturi Pavilion, Minnesota's home court. Several "Go Big Red!" chants filled the arena during stoppages, and late in the third set a Nebraska fan dressed as Santa Claus conducted cheers from both sides of the arena.
"I was wondering today what the crowd would be like," Cook said, "but I got a lot of texts and emails from people saying, 'We're coming up.' So I had a feeling there would be a large contingent. There's no place like Nebraska."
Even before Foecke, Maloney and the Huskers advanced to an all-Big Ten semifinal against Illinois just down the road at Minneapolis' Target Center, Cook had another item on his mind: the tournament draw. Friday, as he departed his postmatch news conference, he said loudly to the seated reporters, "No one wants to ask why all the Big Ten teams are in one bracket? No one wants to bring that up?"
NCAA tournament seedings fell in such a way that four of five seeds from the Big Ten -- No. 2 Minnesota, No. 3 Illinois, No. 6 Wisconsin and No. 7 Nebraska -- landed on the right side of the bracket, putting No. 8 seed Penn State alone on the left. That made it problematic for more than two Big Ten teams to reach the final four. Stanford of the Pac-12 and BYU of the West Coast Conference are first up Thursday.
Most observers presumed Nebraska would face Minnesota in the regional final. Before the Minnesota-Oregon semifinal began, Cook fielded two questions about Minnesota and none about Oregon. The possibility of facing Big Ten opponents back-to-back in a regional final and national semifinal seemed way too familiar to Cook. Two years ago, Nebraska had to beat Penn State for the third time in a little more than a month in a regional final to reach the final four. Had Minnesota advanced Friday, Nebraska would have faced the Gophers a third time this season, with the final four again on the line. The Gophers beat Nebraska twice in the regular season.
"When you have a conference that has five of the top [16] teams, four of the Elite Eight, and six of the Sweet 16, and they're knocking each other off, it's tough," Cook said Saturday when asked about it. "The committee has to live with what they do, and they go about their business. But I have a feeling, if this was men's basketball, sports talk would be going all day long discussing all this, and I think you'd see some coaches stepping up if you had five ACC teams knocking each other off.
"Credit to our conference. Our conference is really good. You've got to win matches to win it. But it's tough when Big Ten teams have to play each other a lot."