Nebraska takes the best shot from Arkansas, wins in four

Nebraska’s dream-like home season wrapped up with a fairytale ending.

After beginning the season with a match in front of 92,003 fans at Memorial Stadium, the top-seeded Huskers closed out with a hard-fought win over Arkansas in the NCAA Tournament regional final before 8,713 in the Devaney Center.

The Huskers improved to 32-1 overall, 21-0 at Devaney, with a 26-24, 25-14, 21-25, 25-23 victory Saturday over the ninth-seeded Razorbacks. Nebraska, making its sixth trip to the national semifinals in the past nine years, plays fourth-seeded Pittsburgh on Thursday. Pitt pulled off a reverse sweep over ACC rival Louisville early Saturday.

“It’s just been kind of a magical season in many ways and to win it tonight in our crowd was awesome,” Nebraska coach John Cook said. “It’s very rewarding because our fans deserve this too. It’s just a different ballgame when you get to this point. It’s a different intensity and there’s a lot of pressure trying to get to a final four. It’s hard to do, really hard.”

After the match, the NU players took a lap around the court, high-fiving the fans.

“Everyone says there’s no place like Nebraska, and our fans come out, and they prove it every single night and every single home game,” Reilly said. “So it’s cool to give back to them a little bit and just say thank you to them just by doing that little thing.”

The Razorbacks were the first team to reach 20 points in three of the four sets, but Nebraska rallied to win the first and fourth sets.

“Before the season started, Coach was saying that one of the best attributes of this team was our competitiveness,” freshman setter Bergen Reilly said. “I’m not surprised that we didn’t back down in those tough moments in those tough situations. That’s what makes this team really special — we have no fear and we hate to lose just as much as we love to win.”

Arkansas (28-6), an…