LINCOLN — It was unseasonably quiet around the Nebraska volleyball offices this week.

Typically this has been the week where the Huskers prepared for regional-round opponents standing between them and the final four, while simultaneously trying to balance the chaos of impending finals.

But this year's team can prep for final exams in peace. Not that they're excited about it.

Nebraska's upset loss last week to Kansas State in the second round of the NCAA tournament was the Huskers' earliest postseason exit since 1993. It gave coach John Cook and his staff an early start on examining how a team that was considered the nation's best in October after wins over then-top ranked Illinois and No. 5 Penn State limped to the finish with a 5-3 record in the season's final eight matches, including a pair of stunning losses to unranked teams.

"The tough thing is we were the No. 1 team in the country for a while," Cook said. "We were probably playing at the highest level of any team in the country. We won the Big Ten championship, but toward the end we were struggling. Why that is, I can't tell you today."

Cook said he hasn't pinpointed exactly why the Huskers seemed to unravel over the season's final month, but he had his theories. Among them:

• Fatigue: Nebraska's move to the Big Ten Conference brought with it two large changes over the Big 12 — a step up in competition from top-to-bottom and a schedule that usually had teams playing back-to-back nights each week. Four of the Huskers' five losses this season came in matches played on the second of consecutive nights.

The Huskers played fewer players each match than most of their Big Ten counterparts, Cook said. Part of that was out of necessity and part was Cook's preference to keep the same six players on the court as much as possible to build cohesion.

Injuries and youth limited the Huskers' bench. Shelby Winkelmann, a freshman defensive specialist Cook thought would play heavy minutes, played in just 20 matches as she went through a rookie's ups and downs. Freshman Taylor Simpson, who was going to be counted on to spell outside hitters Gina Mancuso and Hannah Werth, missed most of the year with a back condition.

"That really hurt not having her," Cook said of Simpson. "She could've made a big contribution."

That meant that Mancuso and Werth, along with right-side hitter Morgan Broekhuis, often played in all six rotations without the benefit of a few points off to take a physical and mental break.

"You look at the teams still playing, they have a lot of depth," Cook said. "They play a lot of kids."

• Distractions: Nebraska was never able to get over a series of mental hurdles — most prominently, the two-match suspension of starting setter Lauren Cook, the coach's daughter, after her hit-and-run arrest on Oct. 30, just hours after the team returned from an exhausting East Coast road trip.

John Cook implied several times throughout the season the team dealt with other, non-public issues that tugged at the fabric of focus. When pressed for specifics in an interview with The World-Herald, he declined to elaborate.

"It's kind of a main theme we had to battle this year was all the distractions," Werth said. "Little distractions add up and will come out in prime opportunities. I think it did and it's something to learn from."

The two detractors worked hand-in-hand to break down Nebraska's fundamentals on the floor, especially the Huskers' passing, which increasingly became erratic.

The Huskers hit below .200 four times in the season's final 10 matches, including in a blowout, three-set loss at Purdue and a shocking defeat at Northwestern — the conference's 10th-place team — to end the regular season.

"Part of what wears teams down is expectations," Cook said. "Going into the Big Ten, we wanted to prove something, but now we're trying to protect a lead, and all these teams are coming after us. The pressure of 'Can we win it?' That wears on people, the expectation of being great. Expectation is a heavy thing to be carrying around every day."

Next year's Huskers should be more adept at handling the challenges of the Big Ten. Healing and experience should build depth, and Cook said Nebraska may re-examine training methods to help keep the team physically ready to play back-to-back nights.

Lauren Cook, Mancuso, Werth, Brokehuis, and freshman libero Lara Dykstra figure to return as full-time starters and give Nebraska plenty of leadership.

The middles will be talented, but unproven. Cook said sophomore middle blocker Hayley Thramer, a starter for the first half of the season, could be dominant. The team also expects big things from 6-3 middle blocker Cecilia Hall, a native of Sweden who redshirted this season and occasionally wowed during workouts.

"She's a beast," Werth said. "In practice, I couldn't stop her."

Both coaches and players who come back in 2012 will return as veterans tested by significant struggles. And they want to make sure no one thinks an early end robs Nebraska of a historic achievement. The Huskers reached the top of a conference considered, at worst, the second-best league in the country behind the perennially stout Pac-12.

A nation-high eight teams from the Big Ten made it to the NCAA tournament this year. Six of them will participate in this weekend's Sweet 16.

Nebraska isn't one of them, but there's a championship trophy sitting outside Cook's office that says this year won't be remembered solely for how soon it finished.

"We got everybody's best shot, I guarantee you," Cook said. "We got everybody's best shot we played in the Big Ten this year. For us to win the conference our first year in, with how many teams that are in the Sweet 16, for me personally, I feel like I've done one of my best jobs coaching."

Contact the writer:

402-444-1201, sports@owh.com

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