The first of John Cook’s four national championships as Nebraska volleyball coach occurred nearly 21 years ago. It had all sorts of surprises.
The title came in Cook’s first season as coach in 2000, although he’d been working with the group before that after coming back to Nebraska in 1999 as Terry Pettit’s hand-picked successor.
Second, the Huskers weren’t supposed to be that good. Nebraska was ranked No. 6 to begin the season. Cook wasn’t expecting a title run, so in one of his first big decisions as coach, he redshirted his best player, Nancy Metcalf, after she came back to Lincoln after a summer of training with the United States national team.
“We were thinking we weren’t going to be that good,†Cook said this week. “That’s why we redshirted Nancy. She was in the final cut for the Olympics. They played all summer and she was beat up. I’m like, ‘OK, I don’t think we’re going to be that good, so let’s just redshirt Nancy to 2001.’
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“(Greichaly Cepero) was going to be a first-year setter, I moved (Laura Pilakowski) from middle to outside. So we had all of these new positions and new players.â€
But a determined group of players surprised its coach and the nation, and won the whole dang thing. The Huskers were good one year ahead of schedule.
This is a reunion weekend for the 2000 national championship team, which will be honored during Nebraska’s match against Michigan State on Sunday. About 10 players are expected back.
Nebraska went 34-0 that year. In 40 years of NCAA women’s volleyball, there have only been five undefeated teams.
“Sometimes teams just catch fire,†Cook said. “It all happened when we were at Notre Dame, and football was playing there, too. We were playing UCLA and we won in five, and that’s when all of a sudden they thought, ‘Man, we could be pretty good.’â€
The Huskers came close to losing in the second round of the NCAA Tournament against unheralded South Carolina at the NU Coliseum. Just 10 days after undergoing an emergency appendectomy, Pilakowski managed 15 kills in a harrowing win that is a part of the lore of the 34-0 season.
At the Final Four played in Richmond, Virginia, the Huskers beat Hawaii in the national semifinals and Wisconsin in five sets in the championship match.
The championship came with mixed emotions for Cook because he’d previously coached several of the Wisconsin players when he was the Badgers head coach.
Nebraska’s 2000 team benefited from Cook coming back in 1999 as an assistant coach, knowing he’d be the head coach the next season.
“I think that was a really positive transition just for me to integrate with the team,†Cook said. “But we also went to China that summer in 2000, and that was a huge deal. But it allowed me to get my feet underneath me and be around some of those players.â€
Cepero, a smooth, 6-foot-2 setter, was the national player of the year that season, and was joined by Pilakowski and Amber Holmquist on the All-American team.
“Those teams had everything,†Cook said.
Nebraska dominated the Big 12, winning 17 of its 20 league matches by sweep.
Another key to the success of that team was that the senior captains — Angie Oxley, Kim Behrends and Jill McWilliams — selflessly embraced a talented sophomore class that developed rapidly.
That’s something that’s also happening with Nebraska’s current squad, which is blending a group that had six returning starters with four freshmen who play a lot.
Players from the state were a key part of Nebraska’s success in 2000. Eight of the 14 players were from Nebraska, and they came from each region of the state — Chappell, Burchard, Columbus and Lincoln.
The group has remained close, Cook said.
“I just know that 2000 team, they’re here all of the time,†he said. “They’re very, very close. They all come here and hang out, they vacation together. They have babies during the same week. It’s crazy how connected they are.â€
Three of those players are on college volleyball staffs in the state — Oxley is an assistant coach at Creighton, Lindsay Wischmeier is Nebraska’s director of volleyball operations and Pilakowski is the strength coach for Omaha.
Briefly
* Nebraska (9-3, 3-0 Big Ten) played its best match of the season Friday while sweeping Michigan 25-14, 25-15, 25-13. Nebraska’s .462 hitting percentage is the highest by a Big Ten team this season. The Huskers’ four attack errors were its fewest since 2018, when it had four against Missouri State.
* Nebraska setter Nicklin Hames is one assist away from moving up to fourth all-time for career assists.
* Michigan State (8-4) picked up its first conference win of the season Friday by sweeping Iowa. Michigan State finished 3-12 last spring.