John Cook earns 700th win as Nebraska volleyball downs UCLA

There’s the win-loss record for John Cook as head coach of the Huskers after another milestone win for Nebraska’s living legend coach on Friday.

The second-ranked Huskers beat UCLA 25-22, 25-10, 23-25, 25-22 at the Devaney Sports Center, giving the Bruins a loss in its first-ever match in the Big Ten Conference.

Nebraska’s eight-match winning streak included four consecutive sweeps before Friday.

Over 25 seasons at Nebraska Cook has won 87% of his matches.

The California native led Nebraska to an undefeated national championship in his first season at Nebraska in 2000, and three more NCAA titles have followed. He’s won 13 conference titles, including last year. There have been 11 trips to the Final Four.

Cook has helped the sport go to another level at Nebraska with a move to an 8,000-seat arena and contributed to the rise of the sport nationally.

These days, many matches are on TV and more places than Nebraska get sellout crowds. The pinnacle off the court came last season when Nebraska set a world record with 92,003 fans for a match at the football stadium.

It turned into John Cook Day on Friday as the Nebraska Athletic Department had already planned a celebration of Cook’s 25 seasons as Nebraska head coach.

Fans received a bobblehead of Cook, and there was a large inflatable in the concourse that fans took photos with.

During breaks in the match video tributes to Cook played on the big screen from several of Cook’s players: Nancy Metcalf, Amber Holmquist, Laura Pilakowski, Dani Busboom, Amanda Gates, Gina Mancuso, Kadie Rolfzen, Mikaela Foecke, Kenzie Maloney, Madi Kubik and Nicklin Hames.

During the third set, Garth Brooks’ “Friends in Low Places” played over the speakers and turned into a sing-along — probably one more tribute to cowboy Cook.

Cook was also the head coach at Wisconsin for seven seasons, and he’s got 861 career wins overall.

On Friday, Nebraska outside hitter Taylor Landfair subbed into the match late in the first set for Linday Krause and finished with a season-best 13 kills on .414 hitting, including four kills in the clinching final set.

Sophomore middle blocker Andi Jackson also had 13 kills with a .409 hitting percentage. She also had five blocks. Merritt Beason and Harper Murray had nine kills apiece.

Nebraska defensive specialist Laney Choby had 20 digs.

Nebraska’s 14 hitting errors combined during the final two sets dropped the Huskers’ hitting percentage to .246. UCLA hit .153

Outside hitter Cheridyn Leverette had 17 kills for UCLA.

John Cook day was good times all the way around until taking a sharp turn late in the third set. Nebraska led 22-14 and was on the verge of a sweep. Then UCLA libero Kat Lutz stunned the crowd with a 10-0 serving run. When her run finally ended after she served into the net, the Bruins led 24-22. After one more kill, the Bruins won the set to stay alive.

In the fourth set, UCLA was pounding shots off Nebraska’s blockers and led 9-8. Nebraska surged ahead during a 4-0 run that included an ace serve from Kennedi Orr and a big block from setter Bergen Reilly. UCLA got its deficit to 23-22. Beason didn’t have a great match hitting but got a massive kill on a back-row attack to give Nebraska a match point. Landfair’s block was the final point.

The first set was a back-and-forth the entire way until Nebraska won 25-22. UCLA went on several runs, but Jackson on the slide attack was a run-stopper for the Huskers. She had four kills on eight attempts in the set.

Nebraska won the final two points on a kill by Jackson and a kill by Landfair. The final point came after a lengthy successful challenge card review by Nebraska (assist to Nebraska assistant coach Jaylen Reyes).