She is the second NU player to earn the CLASS award after Gina Mancuso won it in 2012.

Aide eager to face former team

Chris Tamas has a warm rapport with several of the Huskers after being an assistant on Cook’s staff in 2015 and 2016, helping Nebraska reach the final four in both seasons.

After Illinois won in Lincoln in October, Tamas exchanged hugs with Husker players in an interview room and told reporters Wednesday he’d already exchanged good-natured texts with Foecke saying, “I was going to stop her.”

Tamas said the two years he and his wife, Illini volunteer assistant Jen Tamas, spent in Lincoln were formative.

“I try to learn a lot wherever I go,” Tamas said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to be around a lot of good coaches. But John is really good, how he runs the program, how he approaches every day. No stone unturned with John. I do know that.”

Jordyn Poulter, Illinois’ All-America setter, said when Tamas arrived in Champaign in the spring of 2017, the program didn’t have enough players to scrimmage six on six. Making the final four as a senior is the end of a two-year process Tamas outlined to the incumbent group. This is Illinois’ first appearance in the final four since a runner-up finish in 2011.