Texas and Nebraska playing for the NCAA volleyball championship? It's happened before
Texas is returning to the NCAA volleyball championship game for the second year in a row in hopes of winning its second straight national title.
The Longhorns advanced to Sunday's championship match in Tampa, Fla., after they defeated Wisconsin in four sets in the Final Four Thursday night.
The Longhorns will have to overcome No. 1 overall seed Nebraska if they want to achieve their championship goal. Here's what the championship history is between the two programs:
Nebraska volleyball's first NCAA championship came vs. Texas
Back in 1995, Texas beat defending champion Stanford in the Final Four and met Nebraska in the title game. The Cornhuskers won the match, earning their first ever national championship with longtime coach Terry Pettit.
The win in four sets was Nebraska's 31st consecutive match win. At the time, Nebraska was only the second team east of California to win a NCAA championship. The other was Texas, which won in 1988.
Nebraska vs. Texas volleyball had rematch in 2015 NCAA championship
Fast forward 20 years and the two programs met once again with a championship on the line.
The Longhorns got the best of the Cornhuskers during a regular season match in 2015, but with the Final Four and championship game in Omaha, Neb., the home team disappoint their fans.
The two teams were coached that year by their current coaches, too, with John Cook leading Nebraska and Jerritt Elliott in charge of Texas.
Back-to-back NCAA volleyball championships aren't uncommon
The last team to win back-to-back titles was in 2019, when Stanford won a pair of national titles. Penn State owns the claim to the most dominant NCAA championship run, winning four in a row between 2007 and 2010.
How many NCAA championships do Nebraska and Texas volleyball have?
The NCAA tournament for volleyball has been around since 1981. Nebraska is ahead in this category, with five titles (1995, 2000, 2006, 2015, 2017) compared to Texas' three (1988, 2012, 2022).
Texas won the 1981 Association for Intercollegiate Athletics national championship. The organization disbanded the following year.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas vs. Nebraska NCAA volleyball championship has happened before
