OMAHA, Neb. — Nebraska put the fun back in volleyball this season, and that attitude has carried the Cornhuskers to the NCAA semifinals.

Senior defensive specialist Rachel Schwartz said she and her teammates are playing with the passion of a third-grade team.

"They're just out there to have fun and they're out there because they love it," Schwartz said. "It's truly special in athletics today, because so often people do it for the wrong reason."

The No. 4 Cornhuskers hope to keep the good times rolling Thursday night against top-seeded Penn State. As impressive as Nebraska has been in building a 31-2 record after losing four All-Americans from last year, the Nittany Lions are in a class by themselves.

Penn State is 36-0 and has an NCAA-record 64-match winning streak. The defending champion Lions also have won 109 consecutive sets since last year's title match against Stanford, another record.

The Huskers enter the match with confidence following their dramatic five-set win at Washington in last week's regional final. Nebraska lost the first two sets against the Huskies and was down 9-3 in the fifth set before rallying to win.

Cook acknowledges that it's difficult to move on from that emotional victory. But he recalled Wednesday that in 2006, when the Huskers won the national title, they had to come from behind to beat Minnesota in a five-set regional final. They went on to beat UCLA in the national semifinals and Stanford in the final.

Cook and his players stop short of saying the 2008 Huskers are a team of destiny.

They certainly have overachieved, given the heavy graduation losses from the 2007 squad. But the great intangibles of chemistry and attitude have carried this year's team one step further than one that, on paper, was much more talented.

Last year's Nebraska team appeared destined to defend its national title. But something happened along the way. The Huskers couldn't stand up to the pressure, and they lost in regionals.

Volleyball wasn't fun.

This year, it is.

"It's an opposite reaction from last year," Cook said. "These kids decided that no matter what, we're going to enjoy this journey.

"Why didn't we have fun last year? Sometimes as a team, things create interference," Cook said. "Some of it was expectations, some was stuff outside the team that had nothing to do with volleyball. That's the life of a team and why it's so hard to get to final fours and so hard to win championships. So many things have to go right, and you have to have the right mix of people."

Nebraska has beaten two of the other three teams in the final four. The Huskers posted a three-set sweep against Stanford in the season-opening AVCA Showcase at the Qwest Center and they've split two matches with Texas.

Thursday's match will be Nebraska's first against Penn State since September 2007, a three-set sweep for the Huskers.

Senior middle blocker Amanda Gates said she and her teammates are not intimidated by Penn State's imposing credentials.

No one would dispute that a Nebraska victory — even in front of 17,000 fans cheering for the home-state Huskers — would be a major upset.

"The story of the season has been belief," Gates said. "When nobody believes in us, we're going to believe in ourselves. That's what got us here."

That, and having fun.