The grieving process seemed short-lived Saturday for Sydney Anderson.

The Nebraska volleyball team's season had just ended with a four-set loss to Texas in Omaha's NCAA regional final. During the post-match interview session, in front of cameras and microphones, Anderson and teammate Kori Cooper couldn't hold back their tears as they talked about 2009 coming to an end.

Five minutes later, in a less formal setting in the Qwest Center hallway, Anderson spoke with fire and intensity.

Clearly her wheels already are spinning toward 2010.

The junior setter talked about growing more confident as a team leader this year. She said she has a much better feel for her role of getting the best out of every player on the team, and Anderson said she won't accept anything less than a much better finish for the program come next December.

“I'm going to let everybody on the team know that we're not going down like this again,” said Anderson, who is poised to earn All-America honors for a second straight season. “Follow my lead, jump on my back — however you want to say it — I don't want to feel this way again.”

Enough pieces appear to be in place at Nebraska for Anderson's promise to ring true. After a rocky start to the season, the Huskers steamrolled their way through November and early December, sweeping 10 straight matches before running into the Texas buzz saw.

“Look at the way we finished the season and look how tough the Big 12 was this year,” said Nebraska coach John Cook, whose players will begin their winter training next month.

“Those are things we can build on, and I know this group is going to be very motivated. Like Sydney said, it's going to start right away. We have a chance (in 2010) to be a very special team, and we're going to keep telling them that every day.”

Cooper is the only outgoing senior on this year's roster, and she will be missed. The standout middle blocker had a big hand in the Huskers' 2009 turnaround, both with her play on the court and her presence as a captain.

But NU's list of returners coming off a 26-7 season will be impressive: Anderson at setter; Kayla Banwarth at libero; Lindsey Licht at right-side hitter; Brooke Delano and Jordan Wilberger at middle blocker; and Tara Mueller, Gina Mancuso and Hannah Werth at outside hitter.

And you can add into the mix incoming freshmen Kristen Kelsay, a 5-foot-10 setter from suburban Chicago, and Morgan Broekhuis, a touted 6-5 potential difference-maker from Colorado Springs, Colo.

Broekhuis, a left-hander who picked Nebraska over Texas and Washington, is the No. 2 ranked recruit for 2010 by Prepvolleyball.com. She is expected to contribute right away with the Huskers — as a setter, an attacker or both — and she will get a chance to bond with her new teammates when Nebraska makes its spring trip to play matches in China and Japan.

“I know this team,” Cooper said, “is going to go on to do great things.”

There also are factors around the NCAA volleyball landscape that seem to bode well for Nebraska.

No. 1 Penn State and second-ranked Texas appear to be head-and-shoulders above every team in the country this year, and those two powerhouses are expected to meet in the national championship match next weekend. But both of those schools graduate some of the sport's biggest stars, which should allow for a more wide-open postseason race next season.

Plus, the 2010 final four will be held nearby at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo. That's sure to be a motivational tactic in Cook's arsenal.

After the loss to the Longhorns, Cook talked about how Texas was able to expose the weaknesses in NU's current 5-1 system. The coach expects the experience some of his younger Huskers gained this year, plus the incoming recruits, will allow the team to remedy those problems. And Cook definitely seems to be leaning toward switching to a two-setter attack next fall.

Most important, Anderson expects every player on Nebraska's roster will come into the 2010 season feeling like they have something to prove.

Cooper has talked often with Anderson about the attitude that drove the Huskers in 2006, when they won their last NCAA championship. That triumph was fueled largely by Nebraska's bitter loss to Washington in the 2005 national final.

After the Longhorns dashed Nebraska's dreams of making this year's final four, Anderson wants the defeat that ended NU's 2009 season to drive the team in 2010. As a returning team leader, that kind of refuse-to-lose attitude will be non-negotiable, Anderson said.

“I'm going to help everybody get that chip on their shoulder,” Anderson said. “There's going to be one on mine.”

Contact the writer:

444-1207, chad.purcell@owh.com