Once again, it was a magical season for Nebraska volleyball that didn’t end the Huskers’ dream goal like every year.

Penn State bounced back from Nebraska on Thursday night in the Final Four in Louisville. The Nittany Lions (34-2) fell into a 0-2 hole, but – with help from their fellow No. 1 seed Huskers (33-3) – fought out of it and won each of the remaining three sets by exactly two points ( 23). -25, 18-25, 25-23, 28-26, 15-13).

Instead of appearing in the NCAA Volleyball Championship Game for the second straight year, the Huskers suffered their first reverse sweep loss in the NCAA Tournament since 1982. Penn State, meanwhile, pulled off a historic comeback win and advanced to nationals for the first time since winning Title game all in 2014. The Nittany Lions face off on the Cardinals’ home court at the KFC Yum! at another No. 1 seed Louisville (30-5). Center at 2 p.m. CT Sunday on ABC.

Below is the full Nebraska-Penn State recap and postgame notes courtesy of Nebraska Athletics.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The No. 3 Nebraska volleyball team’s season ended in the NCAA semifinals with a 3-2 loss (25-23, 25-18, 23-25, 26-28, 13-15) to No. 2 Penn State on Friday night in front of 21,726 spectators at the KFC Yum! Center, the largest crowd ever to attend an NCAA indoor volleyball game.

Harper Murray had 20 kills and 15 digs with six blocks and three aces. Andi Jackson had a career-high 19 kills and hit .630 with five blocks.

Taylor Country fair tallied 10 kills and Rebekah Allick and Merritt Beason each had eight. Allick also led the team with 10 blocks.

Lexi Rodriguez had 15 digs to break the career school record of 1,890 held by Justine Wong-Orantes. Rodriguez finished her career with 1,897 digs.

Bergen Reilly had 55 assists and 15 digs.

Nebraska (33-3) hit .262 for the game while Penn State (34-2) hit .242. The Huskers had 15 blocks to 10 for the Nittany Lions. Penn State had seven aces while Nebraska had six. The Nittany Lions had 14 service errors to seven from the Huskers.

Penn State will face No. 4 Louisville in the NCAA finals on Sunday at 2 p.m. CT.

Jess Mruzik led Penn State with 26 kills.

Nebraska came out strong with a 4-1 lead thanks in part to a solo block from Allick and a kill from Jackson. The Huskers used a 5-1 run sparked by a mauch ace and a Jackson kill and block with Murray to take a 12-7 lead.

After a timeout, the Nittany Lions went on a 7-1 run to take a 14-13 lead, their first lead of the set. A service error evened the score at 14-14, but Penn State took a 16-14 lead as the Huskers continued to have problems receiving serve. Landfair tied the score at 16-16, and back-to-back kills from Landfair and Beason gave NU an 18-17 lead.

Penn State regained a 19-18 lead, but Murray finished the game and tied the score at 19-19. Beason kept the score at 20-20 with a sideout kill, and Penn State scored to give the Huskers a 21-20 lead. But PSU responded with two kills and a Husker scoring error to go up 23-21. Jackson scored a sideout kill for the Big Red and Beason served an ace to make it 23-23. Jackson scored her fifth kill to secure set point at 24-23, and the sophomore All-American closed out the set at 25-23 with her sixth kill.

Penn State scored the first three points, but Nebraska scored the next four with three straight blocks and a Murray kill. Three kills from Jackson made it 8-6 NU, and a block from Allick and Reilly and a back row kill from Murray increased the lead to 11-7.

Landfair added a kill and Allick and Beason combined on a block to make it 13-8. Penn State missed, and Allick and Landfair scored the sixth and seventh blocks of the set to give NU a 16-8 lead. But Penn State scored the next four goals to cut the deficit in half to 16-12.

A Landfair kill finally got the Huskers out of the rotation and NU led 19-13 after a Beason kill. Jackson added two more kills to put the Huskers ahead 21-16, and a kill from Murray in the back row put NU ahead seven times, 23-16. Two service errors by Penn State gave NU the 25-18 win.

Murray had three early kills and back-to-back kills from Landfair and Allick made it an 8-6 Big Red. Another Allick kill gave the Huskers a 10-8 lead, but the Nittany Lions went on a 5-0 run and took the lead with 13:10.

NU struggled to get closer than two points while Penn State extended the lead to 20-16. Landfair got a kill, and Allick and Murray got a block to cut the game to 20-18. A Murray kill brought Nebraska within one point at 21-20. But the Huskers failed on consecutive turnovers and lost 23-20.

Jackson tipped in a kill and blocked with Murray to get within 23-22, but Jurevicius stopped again and took the set point at 24-22. Murray kept the Huskers alive with a kill, but the Nittany Lions prevailed 25-23.

Penn State took a 7-3 lead, but the Huskers fought back with kills from Jackson and Murray to cut the lead to 8-7. Two kills got PSU back up to 10-7, but Allick responded with a kill and a block to make it 10-9.

Jurevicius and Murray traded kills with Penn State hits to tie the score at 11-11. But Penn State repelled NU’s advance with two blocks and a kill for a 14-11 lead. Jackson hit a sideout kill to make the score 14-12, and Murray took the serve line with NU trailing 15-13. She served three aces and had a kill as part of a 6-0 run that gave the Big Red an 18-15 lead.

The Huskers led 22-16 after a kill by Landfair and consecutive blocks by Allick, one by Landfair and one by Reilly. But Penn State battled back and got within 22-20 before Murray exited again. An Allick kill brought NU to match point at 24-22, but PSU responded and tied the match at 24-24 with two straight kills.

An ace gave Penn State set point, but the Nittany Lions then struck. Penn State got another set point at 26-25, but Beason won a battle at the net to make it 26-26. Mruzik earned a third set point attempt for PSU, and this time the Nittany Lions managed to force the fifth set.

Penn State took a 5-2 lead and maintained its three-point lead as the teams switched sides at 8-5. A Landfair kill made it 8-6, and kills from Allick and Murray cut PSU’s lead to 9-8.

After a timeout, the Nittany Lions scored three goals in a row to take a 12-8 lead. Nebraska called a timeout and Beason scored a kill before Murray and Jackson got a block to cut the deficit to 12-10.

Mruzik answered 13:10, and the Nittany Lions earned match point 14:11. Penn State committed a service error before Kennedi Orr served an ace to get within 14-13, but the Nittany Lions won 15-13 on a kill from Camryn Hannah.

>> Nebraska finished its season with a record of 33-3. The 33 wins represented the program’s second-most wins since volleyball became an NCAA sport in 1981.

>> The Huskers earned a top-five national ranking for the seventh time in the last 10 seasons.

>> Nebraska played its third five-set match of the season and finished the year with a 2-1 record in five-set matches.

>> Nebraska lost while leading 2-0 for the first time in 103 consecutive NCAA Tournament games. Overall, by winning the first two sets, the Huskers fell to 104-2 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.

>> NU fell to 134-38 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, including 11-7 in the NCAA semifinals. The loss ended Nebraska’s four-game winning streak in the NCAA semifinals.

>> John Cook fell to 93-21 ​​in the NCAA Tournament as Nebraska’s head coach. He fell to 101-26 in his NCAA Tournament career. Cook ranks second all-time in career NCAA Tournament wins and NCAA Tournament wins at a school.

>> The last four NCAA Tournament games between Nebraska and Penn State have all gone five sets, including the last three NCAA semifinal matchups (2008, 2017 and 2024). The teams split those four games, with Penn State holding a 2-1 lead in the semifinals.

>> In the last two meetings between the Huskers and Nittany Lions – the 2017 and 2024 NCAA semifinals – total playing time was 5:55, with an average length of 2:58 over the two games. The 2018 game lasted 2:51 while tonight’s game lasted 3:04.

>> The Huskers had 15 blocks in the match, including seven stuffs in the second set. It was the fourth time this season that Nebraska had at least 15 blocks in a game, including both meetings against Penn State.

>> Nebraska won the last four points of the first set, erasing a 23-21 deficit. And I Jackson had three kills on three swings during the run.

>> Jackson had 11 kills on 13 clean swings in the first two sets, including six kills on eight attacks in the first set and five kills on five swings in the second set. Jackson had 15 kills on 17 swings before making her first attack error late in the third set.

>> Jackson finished the match with a career-high 19 kills, surpassing her previous high of 15.

>> Jackson hit .630 in the match. She finished this season with a .439 attack percentage, a mark that ranked fourth in school history and third in the rally scoring era.

>> Lexi Rodriguez became Nebraska’s all-time digs leader tonight. Rodriguez had 15 digs in the match, bringing her career total to 1,897. She broke the previous record of 1,890 digs held by Justine Wong-Orantes (2013-16).

>> Rodriguez also increased her career NCAA Tournament digs total to 280 and finished her career with the most postseason digs in school history.

>> Rodriguez had 473 (458+) digs in her final season. That total ranks ninth on Nebraska’s season digs chart.

>> Rebecca Allick had 10 blocks in the match. In two NCAA semifinals totaling eight sets, Allick recorded 20 blocks.

>> Harper Murray posted her third straight double-double with 20 kills and 15 digs while adding six blocks and three service aces. Her six blocks were a career high.