Defending national champion Nebraska is back and confident at college volleyball's Final Four.

The Cornhuskers (31-1) play Stanford (31-2) in a semifinal Thursday at 10 p.m. CT in San Diego. Long Beach State (32-0) and Arizona (25-4) are the other semifinalists.

"I really like where our team mentally is going to be. We've just gone through wars to get to this point," coach John Cook said. "We've been pushed. I love the way our team responded. They've found out a lot about their inner strength and I think it's really going to help us going into the Final Four."

Nebraska didn't have an easy time getting there. The Huskers needed to win their first five-game match of the season to advance past Florida on Saturday.

The Huskers won the first two games 30-18 and 30-24 before the Gators rallied to take the next two 30-28, 30-25. In the fifth game, Florida led 12-10 and was just three points away from the upset, when Nancy Metcalf sparked a 5-1 run with four kills to seal it.

"When you're beating teams 3-0 all year long, you never find out or learn from those matches. You just assume everything is fine," Cook said. "It was great experience for us. Even though it's been tough, I think it's the best thing that could have happened to this team."

Nebraska has been to seven other Final Fours, finishing second twice and winning it all in 1995 and last year. To repeat, the Huskers will have to get past the Cardinal, who are a semifinalist for the 13th time, and Arizona or Long Beach.

Top-seeded Long Beach is the only team to beat the Huskers this year.

"It's a very even field and I'm not sure there's favorites," Cook said. "I think whoever goes in and plays well is going to be the national champion."