Midwest Express

Volleyball might be the only sport in which a coach from Nebraska could show up courtside in Amherst, Mass., wearing a lei and not cause much of a stir. Terry Pettit wasn't questioned about his choice of neckwear until near the end of his postmatch press conference at the NCAA championships last Saturday, which was fitting because it was the one piece of attire to which he had given no thought.

Pettit at first considered wearing a suit for his team's championship match against Texas. After all, a victory would be the biggest of his 19-year career at Nebraska. Then he had second thoughts. Terry, he finally said to himself, you just need to be comfortable, because the most important thing is for you to be relaxed for the players. So he went with an off-white sweater, navy slacks and brown loafers.

Sunita Nepo, the mother of Nebraska freshman backup setter Fiona Nepo, helped him accessorize. She had made several leis from fresh flowers during the trip from the family's home in Honolulu to Amherst, and she put a purple one around Pettit's neck before the title match, which his team won 3-1. "It just really relaxed me," he said. Which stands to reason. How can a man be uptight if he's wearing a flower necklace?

But that look hardly typified the Nebraska team. The Cornhuskers are the antithesis of the stereotypically tanned, beach-bred West Coast volleyball teams. Their star, senior middle blocker Allison Weston of Papillion, Neb., is an avid fisherman (that's pond fishing, not deep-sea) and has a 3.7 grade point average in her major of forestry, fisheries and wildlife. Outside hitter Billie Winsett, also a senior, grew up on the family farm in Indiana and sews her own clothes, and she fishes with Weston when they can find the time. Setter Christy Johnson, the team's only other senior, refuses to join them. "I'm not an outdoorsy, make-my-own-clothes kind of person," she says. But Johnson, who grew up in Omaha, is a big fan of folksiness. "There's definitely a Midwest personality," she says. "I've been around girls from California, and there's definitely a difference. To me, people in the Midwest are a little more low-key, more down to earth."

While a handful of schools like Nebraska have become volleyball powers in the last decade, the top level of play has still been dominated by teams from the West Coast. This year's tournament final was the second without a California team since the NCAA started holding volleyball championships in 1981. Also, Nebraska is only the second team without a view of the Pacific to win the title, the other being Texas in 1988. "Twenty-five years ago the players from the West Coast [schools] were more highly skilled," Pettit says. "Ten years ago the Nebraskas and Texases were at the same level as those teams, but a lot of the teams we were playing weren't." Nebraska now plays a tougher schedule against nationally ranked teams, but still had only two matches during the regular season that weren't 3-0 wins. The Cornhuskers, who finished 32-1 after being ranked No. 1 for 14 out of 15 weeks, were extended to five games by Michigan State in last Thursday's semifinals before beating Texas 11-15, 15-2, 15-7, 16-14.

All but four of the Cornhuskers are from Nebraska or nearby states, and none fits the Great Plains mold better than Weston, who got her first fishing rod for Christmas when she was five. "Her mother and I weren't athletes, so we've always wondered where, genetically, Allison got it," says Tom Weston, one of many fans at the Mullins Center with NU written in bright-red lipstick on one cheek and #1 on the other. At Papillion-LaVista High, Weston lettered in volleyball, basketball, soccer and track. In her junior year she decided to concentrate on volleyball. "She could have played Division I in three or four sports and been exceptional," Pettit says. This fall Weston broke the Nebraska career record for kills (1,778, an average of 4.3 per game over four years) and was co-winner of the national player of the year award with Stanford's Cary Wendell.

As for Winsett, when she isn't making her own clothes, she's making her own music on the piano. She and her fianc�, Greg Fletcher, who plays the trumpet, occasionally perform duets at church, but for the last four years volleyball has cut into her keyboard time. "You don't understand how hard we've worked for this," she said after the title match.

The Nebraska players who aren't from the Midwest say they were drawn to the school because of the program's success—the Cornhuskers also reached the championship match in 1986 and '89, but lost in three games both times—and the friendliness of the players. Still, it takes a certain type of person to thrive in Lincoln when your options include Palo Alto and Honolulu. "We've had people from Florida and California come on their recruiting trips, and you can just tell that they feel like they've gone back in time," Weston says.

The championship match was the second meeting of the season between Texas and Nebraska, which also won the first match, 3-0 on Nov. 4, and they'll continue to play each other on a regular basis. Starting next year, when Texas joins the new Big 12 (currently the Big Eight), the schools will be conference rivals. Pettit thinks the new conference will dispel any lingering perceptions that the West Coast is dominant. Texas already did its part, beating '94 champion Stanford twice this season, the second time in the tournament semifinals.

But the Longhorns were surprised in the final by Nebraska's junior outside hitter, Kate Crnich, who had 25 kills—nearly double her previous career best of 13. Crnich scored 15 kills in the first three games against Texas, one less than Winsett's team-leading total at that point and live more than Weston. "We pulled our right-side blockers in to help on Weston," Long-horn coach Mick Haley said, "and that opened it up for Crnich and Winsett."