The Nebraska Athletic Department and the University of Akron have finalized a two-part agreement, addressing the 2018 canceled football game between the schools and scheduling a future contest in Lincoln.

• Nebraska will play host to Akron at Memorial Stadium on Sept. 6, 2025. Akron will receive a guarantee of $1.45 million for the 2025 game in Lincoln.
• Nebraska will pay Akron $650,000 for the originally scheduled game on Sept. 1, 2018, that was canceled due to severe weather in Lincoln. The contract signed in 2014 provided a guarantee of $1.17 million for Akron to play the game in Lincoln, and Nebraska has agreed to pay more than half of that guarantee despite the game being canceled.

“We are pleased to finalize an agreement with Akron that is beneficial for both institutions,” Nebraska Athletic Director Bill Moos said. “We have had good dialogue with Akron during this process and are appreciative of the cooperation and patience from everyone involved. We look forward to Akron making a return trip to Memorial Stadium in 2025.”

The 2025 game against the Zips will be the home opener at Memorial Stadium for Nebraska. The Huskers open the season at Illinois on Aug. 30, before Akron will visit Lincoln. Nebraska also has a non-conference game scheduled at Cincinnati on Sept. 13, 2025, with one remaining non-conference opening.

— Associated Press —

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Nebraska got 29 points from James Palmer Jr. and the Huskers pulled away in the second half to defeat Oklahoma State 79-56 on Sunday night at the Sanford Pentagon.

Palmer came in averaging 18.7 points per game but blew by that number early in the second half. He scored a season-high 30 points in Nebraska’s last outing, a 19-point win over Creighton on Dec. 8.

Playing in front of essentially a home crowd, Nebraska (9-2) also got 16 points from Isaac Copeland Jr. and 14 from Thomas Allen. Allen came off the bench after suffering an illness all week. He was diagnosed with a stomach virus and was in a Lincoln Hospital until early Saturday morning. He left Lincoln for Sioux Falls at 7 a.m., arrived at the venue around noon and played 27 minutes going 5 of 7 from the field.

“For him to come in and be able to understand the defensive game plan and what’s going on, I think you can see what we saw in the recruiting process,” Nebraska coach Tim Miles said. “Sometimes he’s kind of the fifth Beatle. He did a great job tonight and made huge baskets.”

Nebraska’s biggest lead of the first half was 32-30 when Glynn Watson Jr. buried a deep 3-pointer at the buzzer after the Huskers trailed for most of the half. It was part of a 23-5 run that carried over into the second half and gave Nebraska a 46-35 lead when Allen hit a 3-pointer with 13:53 to play.

Oklahoma State trailed by double figures the rest of the way.

The Huskers extended the lead to 24 when Copeland hit a jumper to make it 70-46 with nearly three minutes to play. A late 3-pointer from freshman Justin Costello made it 79-54 with 29 seconds left — Nebraska’s biggest lead of the game.

The Sanford Pentagon is four hours north of Lincoln, Nebraska, and the 3,000-seat venue was overwhelmingly filled with Huskers fans.

“I think it might have caught our guys off guard a little bit. I don’t know if they knew exactly what to expect,” Miles said. “We just needed to process the whole deal, and I thought we got stronger as the game went on. You have to prove that you can win away from home, and although this had a great environment to it, it’s still away from home.”

Freshman Yor Anei led Oklahoma State (4-6) with a season-high 17 points and Lindy Waters III and Michael Weathers scored 13 apiece.

TURNING POINT

Trailing 28-21, the Huskers clamped down on defense and got a pair of 3-pointers from Isaac Copeland to take momentum into halftime. The Nebraska defense also forced two shot-clock violations in the final two minutes of the half, adding to their momentum surge.

STAT OF THE NIGHT

The Cowboys entered the game shooting 42 percent from 3-point range. Their previous season low was seven made 3s, in their last outing, a 63-53 loss to then-unranked but now No. 24 Houston on Dec. 8.

BIG PICTURE

Oklahoma State has now lost four in a row. The Cowboys shot just 13.3 percent from 3-point range, hit 8 of 15 from the free-throw line and committed 19 turnovers.

The Huskers made 21 free throws and shot 91.3 percent from the stripe — both season highs — and had 10 steals. They have won four of their last five.

UP NEXT

Oklahoma State will be home for three straight, beginning Dec. 21 vs. Central Arkansas. The Cowboys open their Big 12 conference schedule on Jan. 2 vs. Iowa State.

Nebraska returns to home for two straight, beginning Dec. 22 against Cal State Fullerton.

— Associated Press —

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The celebration of Stanford’s NCAA-record eighth national volleyball title was in full swing, when the Cardinal players went flat on their backs to flap their arms and legs for some snow angels in the layer of confetti on the court.

There was some exhaustion amid the exhilaration, too, after being pushed to the limit by defending champion Nebraska.

Kathryn Plummer finished with 19 kills and 10 digs, Morgan Hentz had a career-high 32 digs and freshman Holly Campbell added a career-high 15 kills for the Cardinal in a five-set victory over the Huskers on Saturday night, 28-26, 22-25, 25-16, 15-25, 15-12.

“It took us a while to get there. Nebraska kept coming back and back,” Hentz said. “They put up an amazing fight.”

Audriana Fitzmorris added 14 kills, Jenna Gray had 57 assists and Tami Alade had eight blocks for Stanford, which won despite Plummer, the 6-foot-6 two-time national player of the year, hitting only .153 after entering with a .288 percentage for the season.

“We found out other ways to score when I wasn’t scoring,” Plummer said. “Other people stepped up.”

Mikaela Foecke had 27 kills and a game-high 29 points for seventh-seeded Nebraska, which had the crowd at Target Center on its side and effectively minimized the power and precision of Plummer but couldn’t pull away from this towering Stanford team that finished the season on a 32-match winning streak and was determined to avenge a loss to Florida in last year’s semifinals.

“I don’t know that I’ve been part of a match that was more interesting, more hard-fought,” Cardinal coach Kevin Hambly said, adding: “Foecke was unbelievable in that match. We couldn’t touch her. It’s sad to see her leave the NCAA. She’s going to have a long career ahead of her. I think we just all have a lot of respect for that team, how hard they play, the way they defend, the way they scrap.”

The Cardinal (34-1) had a much tougher time than in their three-set victory over BYU in the semifinals against the Huskers (29-7), who were champions in 2015 and 2017. They took a 3-1 lead in the final set, but the Cardinal proved they were much more than the power and precision of Plummer, who’s part of a star-studded junior class with Fitzmorris, who’s also 6-foot-6, Gray and Hentz.

“When you’re only playing to 15 points, you have to side-out very effectively. We let them get a few too many runs and weren’t able to come back. We fought hard at the end, but it wasn’t good enough,” said Foecke, who played in her program-record 22nd NCAA tournament match with fellow senior Kenzie Maloney.

Gray used a quick flip over the net to give Stanford a 13-10 lead, the largest of the fifth set to that point. Sidney Wilson’s serve was initially ruled wide, but Hambly challenged the call and a replay review reversal put Stanford in set point mode.

Foecke responded with a kill to cut the lead to 14-11, and the Huskers took the next point on a net violation. Foecke’s kill attempt on the ensuing play was thwarted by Hentz, who was consistently able to get exceptional height and control on her digs. That allowed Gray to set up Meghan McClure for the winner, sending Stanford into celebration mode. The party paused for a few seconds during an unsuccessful challenge by Nebraska on an attack line fault, but the looks on the faces of the Huskers revealed a team beginning to come to grips with a runner-up finish.

“They have a really huge block. They have really talented hitters. Jenna Gray is a phenomenal setter,” said Lauren Stivrins, who had 19 kills for the Huskers and led their surge in the fourth set.

With setter Nicklin Hames in rhythm, Stivrins scored three of their last seven points before Foecke notched the winner. Stivrins and coach John Cook were having a hard time coming to grips with the departure of Foecke and Maloney.

“They’ve created a legacy here over the last four years that we’re all going to be chasing,” Cook said. “I’m going to have to become a better coach. Our returning players are going to have to find a way to go to another level to reach what these guys have done.”

The “Go Big Red” chant broke out as soon as the national anthem ended, the NBA arena near capacity with a crowd of 18,113 tilted hard toward the Huskers with the Nebraska campus about a six-hour drive away. Those red-clad fans helped set the championship attendance record in Kansas City last year, with 18,516.

Most of the local ticket-buyers snagged seats months ago with the hope of cheering on host Minnesota in the final, but the second-seeded Gophers were felled in five sets by Oregon in the round of 16 and the Huskers emerged instead from that region to reach the NCAA semifinals for the fourth straight year.

— Associated Press —