Print edition: 
LINCOLN, Neb.— During all those years together in the Big Eight and Big 12 conferences, Nebraska defeated Kansas State in volleyball a total of 82 times out of 85 matches.
So it was no wonder the second-ranked Huskers were favored Friday night to dismiss the unranked and unheralded Wildcats again and move on to the NCAA tournament's Sweet 16 next week in Hawaii.
Kansas State, however, had its own travel plans.
The Wildcats, playing loose and low-error volleyball, stunned the Huskers (25-22, 22-25, 31-29, 22-25, 15-11) before a noisy, sellout crowd of 4,161 at the NU Coliseum. When match point occurred, fittingly on another Nebraska hitting error, Wildcat coach Suzie Fritz and her coaching staff soaked up the moment with hugs while their players rolled on the court in a combination dance-dog pile.
Kansas State (22-10) rebounded from a fourth-set loss that evened the match and never trailed in the deciding set. It was a scene that was not without precedent this season. The Wildcats are now 8-1 in matches that have stretched to a fifth set.
"We thought we could play with them, honestly," Fritz said. "We tried to instill that in our team. My staff worked very hard in preparation for what we thought we needed to do against Nebraska. We delivered that message and our team carried through."
The Wildcats' formula mixed in the timely hitting of Kaitlynn Pelger and Lilla Porubek with a defense that kept Nebraska (25-5) on its heels for much of the match. There was also help from Nebraska in the form of 11 serving errors and an offense that seemed out of synch, something that has plagued the Huskers in the past few weeks.
"Kansas State did everything they need to do to win," Nebraska coach John Cook said. "They played great and they never let up on the gas. They won all the big points, while we were high-error. We missed serves, we were in the net, and we didn't pass the ball well all night."
Pelger led K-State with 22 kills, while Porubek added 17. Many of Porubek's kills helped stop Husker runs and rallies. Courtney Traxson and Alex Muff also contributed to a balanced offensive attack with 14 and 12 kills, respectively.
Nebraska's Gina Mancuso led all attackers with 25 kills, Morgan Broekhuis added 14, Hannah Werth had 13 and Jordan Wilberger finished with 11.
