BATON ROUGE, La. — John Cook still isn't sure exactly what to expect when his relatively young volleyball team takes the court.

But the Nebraska coach is getting a pretty good idea that these Huskers are willing to put up a fight.

In just their fifth match this season, the No. 6 Huskers survived their second five-set thriller Friday night, rallying for a gutsy 22-25, 25-16, 21-25, 25-15, 15-8 win over Louisiana State at the Tiger Classic. The victory came less than a week after Nebraska outlasted 13th-ranked Minnesota in five sets at the AVCA Showcase.

The Tigers weren't ranked coming into their own tournament, but LSU sits just outside the Top 25 and has become an NCAA tournament regular. Louisiana State already this season has turned in an impressive sweep over Notre Dame, and the Tigers barely lost to No. 11 Stanford in five sets during their season opener.

Plus, the match was played in front of a lively crowd of 1,012. It was the first true road test of the season for Nebraska, and Cook loved the way his players remained composed.

“We were very inconsistent in games one, two and three,” Cook said. “But the great thing about tonight was that in games four and five we just went to another level. You can see this group is starting to play with a lot of trust and belief in each other, and that was a very powerful thing late in the match.”

Sophomore middle blocker Brooke Delano, much like she did in the win over Minnesota, had a big hand in the Huskers' victory. The Bellevue West graduate finished with nine kills, hit .389 and had a career-high nine blocks — and she played her best volleyball of the night in the final sets.

“As much as our team doesn't like playing up and down like we did tonight, and as much as we like to get sweeps, I like the pressure,” Delano said. “I just like that back and forth. It's like in basketball, where you want to be the one taking that last shot. I love this type of match.”

A thundering double block by Delano and Lindsey Licht made it 6-4 Nebraska in the fifth, sparking the Huskers to close out the match with a 9-4 burst. The run included a pair of kills by Tara Mueller, one more kill apiece from Delano and Licht and the final putaway of the night by Jordan Wilberger.

As a team, Nebraska hit an eye-popping .600 in set five.

Sydney Anderson finished with 51 assists and 14 digs, Megan Pendergast had two aces and Kayla Banwarth added 21 digs. Mueller had 22 kills while taking 53 swings, and Licht had 15 kills and five blocks.

“As I keep saying, this is a work in progress,” Cook said. “I was really impressed with our whole team.”

In Nebraska's first match Friday morning, the Huskers breezed to a 25-14, 25-15, 25-10 sweep over Louisiana-Lafayette. In the victory, freshmen Hannah Werth and Gina Mancuso both started for the first time this season and combined for 23 kills.

Cook took advantage of NU's opening match to rest starters Kori Cooper, Mueller and Delano. The Huskers' 81-minute blowout had reserves Jessica Yanz and Allison McNeal getting their most extensive playing time yet at Nebraska. It also marked the collegiate debuts for Paige Hubl and Kaitlynn James as well as the season debut for Brigette Root.

The only NU non-starter who didn't play against Lafayette was freshman Hayley Thramer, who is expected to redshirt in 2009.

The Huskers won't have much time to rest and recover from a gruelling Friday. Nebraska wraps up its appearance in LSU's tournament with a 12:30 p.m. match today against Tulane.

Louisiana-Lafayette (3-3) ..... 14 15 10

Nebraska (4-1) ..................... 25 25 25

Louisiana-Lafayette (kills-blocks-aces): Krolikowski 4-0-0, Hall 3-0-0, Gavin 1-0-1, Goodwin 7-0-1, Fogler 3-0-0, Dufrene 0-0-0, Mirarchi 0-0-0, Brown 0-0-0, Cune 0-0-0.

Nebraska (kills-blocks-aces): Anderson 1-1-1, Wilberger 5-0-3, Mancuso 10-1-1, Pendergast 0-0-0, McNeal 6-0-4, Werth 13-2-2, Banwarth 0-1-0, Root 0-0-0, Licht 6-0-2, Hubl 0-0-0, Yanz 0-0-2, James 1-0-0.

Set assists: Louisiana-Lafayette 15 (Hall 11); Nebraska 38 (Anderson 16, Yanz 17).

Nebraska (5-1) ...................... 22 25 21 25 15

Louisiana State (2-2) ............ 25 16 25 15 8

Nebraska (kills-aces-blocks): Anderson 4-0-4, Licht 15 0 6, Delano 9-0-9, Cooper 3-0-4, Mueller 22-1-2, Werth 11-0-2, Banwarth 0-1-0, Wilberger 3-0-2, Mancuso 0-0-0, Pendergast 0-0-0, Yanz 0-0-0, McNeal 0-0-0.

Louisiana State (kills-aces-blocks): Johnson 5-0-1, Jones 8-0-1, Dabbs 3-1-2, Skender 9-2-1, Williams 5-0-4, Cooper 20-0-3, Delahoussaye 0-0-0, DeGirolamo 1-1-0, Waclawczyk 0-1-0.

Set assists: Louisiana State 50 (Dabbs 43); Nebraska 60 ( Anderson 51). A--1,012.

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