Huskers Headed to Japan, China

Mavric · June 17, 2014

The Nebraska volleyball players have spent the past month preparing for a 19-day trip to Japan and China by training and learning about the culture and history of the countries.

NU coach John Cook has been mentally preparing the Huskers, who may not win any of their matches against professional teams in countries where volleyball is huge — restaurants are named after players, and coaches are routinely fired for not winning enough.

“What I have to do is look for a win-win in how we play and how we compete, and can we get better as the trip goes on?” Cook said Monday. “Bayi (Peoples Liberation Army), for example, we won our first game off of them on our last trip, otherwise they’ve always pounded us. That was a big deal for me. After two trips of getting smoked by them, we finally got a game off of them, and, of course, the next game was about 25-12.”

Cook hopes the trip will build a foundation for the next two seasons as the young Huskers attempt to get the program back to the NCAA Tournament Final Four for the first time since 2008. Nebraska won NCAA titles following international trips in 2000 and ’06.

The team will leave Tuesday and make stops in Tokyo, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Tianjin and Beijing. Steve Wang, a former professor who is now an international leadership consultant at Talent Plus, will be an interpreter and help with logistics on the trip.

This will be the toughest international trip the Huskers have faced, Cook said. On prior trips, Nebraska played university and junior teams. This time, the Huskers will play professional teams, sponsored by major businesses, with many of the top players in the world.

Twelve Huskers will make the trip (incoming freshmen can’t because of NCAA rules). Nebraska looks to replace some of the production lost by All-America outside hitter Kelsey Robinson and will see which middle blockers can produce most consistently. Meghan Haggerty, Cecilia Hall, Melanie Keil and Kira Larson are all options.