With the second-seeded Huskers’ 25-22, 25-10, 23-25, 25-22 victory over UCLA at the Devaney Center on Friday, Cook reached 700 wins at Nebraska. He is the third coach at a current Big Ten program to do so, doing so in 801 games. That represents an 87% winning percentage in 25 seasons at NU.

Nebraska has now won eight straight games and handed the Bruins their first loss in the expanded league.

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

Cook helped the sport in Nebraska reach new heights with the move to an 8,000-seat arena and contributed to the sport’s national rise.

Many games are televised these days, and more places than Nebraska sell out crowds. The highlight off the field came last season when Nebraska set a world record with 92,003 fans for a game at Memorial Stadium.

Friday marked John Cook Day as the Nebraska athletic department had already planned a celebration of Cook’s 25 years as coach of the Huskers.

Fans received a Cook bobblehead and there was a large bouncy castle in the hall that fans took photos with.

During breaks in play, video tributes to Cook from several of Cook’s players played on the big screen: 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” came over the speakers and turned into a sing-along – probably another tribute to Cowboy Cook.

Cook also coached at Wisconsin for seven seasons and totaled 861 wins in his career.

On Friday, Nebraska native outside hitter Taylor Landfair came on late in the first set for Lindsay Krause and finished with a season-high 13 kills on .414 hitting, including four kills in the deciding final set.

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

Nebraska defensive specialist Laney Choby had 20 digs.

Nebraska’s 14 total hitting errors in the final two sets dropped the Huskers’ batting average to .246. UCLA hit .153

Outside hitter Cheridyn Leverette had 17 kills for UCLA.

The John Cook day had good times throughout until a sharp turn occurred towards the end of the third set. Nebraska led 22-14 and was on the verge of a win. Then UCLA libero Kat Lutz stunned the crowd with a 10-0 serve run. When her run finally ended after she shot into the net, the Bruins led 24-22. After another kill, the Bruins won the set and stayed alive.

In the fourth set, UCLA fended off Nebraska’s blockers and led 9-8. Nebraska stormed ahead with a 4-0 run that included a great serve from Kennedi Orr and a big block from setter Bergen Reilly. UCLA cut the deficit to 23-22. Beason didn’t have 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 back and forth throughout until Nebraska won 25-22. UCLA scored multiple runs, but Jackson was a run-stopper for the Huskers with his slide attack. She had four kills on eight attempts in the set.

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

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