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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In concocting the recipe each year for Nebraska volleyball to play among the nation’s elite programs, John Cook relies on more than a dash of this and sprinkle of that.

Winning big matches, hoisting conference championship banners and celebrating amid confetti a national title require precise measurements. A winning formula.

Who to recruit? How to train? What system to employ?

The ingredients must come together in just the right way if you’re going to eat at the same table with seven-time NCAA titlist Penn State.

“They’ve been the measuring stick for us on how we build our program,” Cook said Wednesday, preparing to face the Nittany Lions in the national semifinals. “How we look at it is, ‘Can we beat Penn State?’”

Huskers-Nittany Lions is Nebraska-Oklahoma football from the glory days, with a net to keep the two teams separated. Rivals with plenty of respect for the other side, but an intense hunger to beat them.

The volleyball rivalry is now two generations old, fueled in its early days by Nebraska postseason wins in 1982, ’85 and ’86 in Lincoln.