John Cook loves defense.
That’s an area that has been a trademark of the Nebraska volleyball program during his 22 seasons as head coach. And this season it’s probably been even more important because Nebraska hasn’t consistently had great offense at each position.
But with how Nebraska plays defense there usually is still the feeling that the Huskers have a chance to win, including against No. 2 Texas and its powerful offense in Saturday's NCAA Elite Eight match in Austin, Texas.
And for the most part, Cook has loved how the Huskers have played defense this season.
That was apparent when the Journal Star went back into the film room with Cook for a study session. The topic this year, of course, was Nebraska’s "elite" back-row defense.
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You can watch the 12-minute video, with video highlights and Cook’s detailed analysis, at .
The video is a glimpse into how Nebraska’s defense leads to great chances on offense. As some people say, the dig makes the kill.
Cook got excited when he paused the video and saw Nebraska's four nonblocking defenders were perfectly lined up, and in a posture that gave them a chance to dig the shot. It looked like fighter jets in perfect formation. It’s just like when a basketball coach tells a player to get in a defensive stance.
Cook even got up from his seat once to explain the “wingman principle” and point out how Keonilei Akana was lined up right where she needed to be in relation to where the Nebraska blockers were. She made the play, and later Nebraska won the point.
Cook got pretty fired up a few times.
“That’s a really, really good volleyball play right there,” he said. “Just how we train it, and how we like to do it. We’ll watch it again at full speed. Boom. Nice play. That was a perfect set by Lexi Rodriguez to be able to put it where Lexi (Sun) could hit line.”
Later, Cook explained how the game plan to defend Penn State hitter Jonni Parker was to use two blockers to take away the cross-body shot Parker likes to hit. But that also meant Parker could hit shots down the line where there were no blockers to slow down the ball at all. On one such attack Rodriguez, Nebraska’s excellent freshman libero, still made the dig, and Madi Kubik got the kill to win the point.
“There is no block there,” Cook said. “This is just one-on-one, mano a mano. Their best hitter against our best digger. So that’s a shot right there.”
Nebraska ranks No. 7 nationally in defense with an average opponent hitting percentage of .141. Nebraska’s on pace to have its best defense in at least 10 years.
Nebraska has averaged 17.2 digs per set this season — the best mark since the 2006 squad had 16.9 per set.
During a win against Maryland last month, the Huskers set a school record for digs in a three-set match with 78.
Over the past 14 matches, nine of Nebraska’s opponents have had one of its three worst hitting matches of the season.
All that success on defense comes from a top-to-bottom emphasis in the program about playing great defense.
“What I tell the team is if a team is playing great defense, they’re blocking you and they’re digging you, what do you do?” Cook said. “You really can’t make many adjustments. So it gets frustrating. It would be like a baseball pitcher just throwing great pitches and you can’t hit them. What do you do? Swing harder?”
Cook says during the recruiting process you can evaluate how good a player may be playing defense a little, but most of the work comes once they’ve reached college.
“There is a saying in volleyball which is developed in Asia that for every one ball you dig in a match you dig 100 balls in practice,” he said. “So think about that. So we try to dig a lot of balls. But it’s a combination of reading and great eye-hand coordination.”
Just like Nebraska keeps stats on hitting and serving, the Huskers have stats for defense that go beyond just dig totals.
“So in the Big Ten in 19 matches Lexi Rodriguez dug 74% of the time accurate,” Cook said. “So we grade it. If a ball comes in her area does she dig it or not? And 74% of the time she was good. Madi Kubik was 75%. So those are pretty good numbers. Nicklin Hames was 78%.
“I think anybody in the 70s is good. That’s why we’re pretty good. Especially this year because there is so many great hitters. Everybody has got good hitters. In years past there are teams you don’t worry about somebody having a really big night. Everybody in the Big Ten has somebody that can have a big night.”