I didn't get a blog page written last evening with having watched the Nebraska-Illinois volleyball final four game in Minneapolis. Stanford had swept BYU in the earlier game. Nebraska got off to a good start and led 14-11 before Illinois went on a 7-2 run and won the first set 25-22. It was the first set that the Huskers lost since Nov. 16 at Purdue. The Illini jumped to a 6-0 lead at the beginning of the second set when Coach Cook used up both of his time-outs. They came back to get to 19-15 but lost the set 25-16. At this point, I was about ready to give up and accept defeat. Mikaela Foecke got going in the 3rd set with 7 kills on 16 swings for a 25-23 win despite 6 service errors. Nebraska's Sun had 6 kills in the 4th set. Her 4th kill stalled and Illini run and another kill gave the Huskers a 20-18 lead. They went on to win the set 25-20 and tie the game. Illinois came back to lead 7-6. With Nebraska back in the lead 12-11, Foecke's attempted kill went out of bounds making the score 12-12. In what was probably the biggest play of the game, Coach Cook challenged the call. After a lengthy discussion it was determined without doubt that Foecke's kill was finger touched by an Illini defender. The score was reset to 13-11 with Foecke getting 1 of her 4 kills in the set to win 15-11 and the game 3-2. I was probably as excited watching the last hour of the match of any volleyball game I remember. Stanford will be tough tomorrow night in defending our National Title.
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