Heading into Thursday night’s semifinals, there was a chance Stanford and Penn State — which each have seven national championships — could face off in Saturday’s title match to break the tie.

But after six hours of volleyball inside the Sprint Center in Kansas City, neither reigning national champion Stanford nor No. 1-ranked Penn State made it to the final match of the 2017 season.

Semifinal #1: No. 5 Nebraska Outlasts No. 1 Penn State

Nebraska was losing early in every one of the five sets of its national semifinal versus Penn State. But the Huskers — who have now won the last seven meetings with the Nittany Lions — never lost hope.

Perhaps the thousands of Big Red faithful, who only had drive three hours to fill the stands of the Sprint Center, cheered and clapped and wooed the Huskers to a five set 25-18, 23-25, 24-26, 28-26, 15-11 victory. But more likely, it was the almost perfectly balanced setting of Kelly Hunter.

Four Nebraska players contributed double-digit kills to advance to the national championship match. Mikaela Foecke led the way with 19, while middle Briana Holman and outside hitter Annika Albrecht each had 13 and freshman opposite Jazz Sweet added 12.

"We're going to the 'ship!" #WhyNotUs#WithEachOtherForEachOther pic.twitter.com/wVbk1mGGPO

— Husker Volleyball (@Huskervball) December 15, 2017

“Today we wanted to go quick and up the middle to try to get our middles one-on-one,” Hunter said, “because sometimes their outsides stand on the pins so we wanted to get one-on-ones anywhere we could. Having a middle attack is great, because it slows down the block. They're thinking about the first attack rather than getting a good move to the pin.”

Holman’s 13 kills and team-high .400 hitting percentage certainly seems to indicate that the scouting report and game plan were spot on. Penn State managed to score 12 blocks on Nebraska, but the Huskers answered back with 13 blocks of their own.

The victory might also have had a little something to do with Nebraska’s 10 aces with 11 serving errors, as opposed to Penn State’s five aces with 14 errors.

Those 10 aces were the most anyone has scored on the Nittany Lions all season. The Huskers 90 digs also represented the most times any team has dug the Lions this year.

Only Stanford matched the Huskers’ 13 blocks against Penn State.

Dear Old State

Thank you for your support all season long. #WeAre pic.twitter.com/Us7TQyv01n

— Penn State Women’s Volleyball (@PennStateVBALL) December 15, 2017

Penn State went up 2-1 and even had match point at 26-25, but in succession, Holman, Sweet, and Stivrins slammed balls the ground and pushed the match to a fifth.

In the final set, Nebraska hit .545 and held Penn State to a .133 clip. But with championship point on the line, Husker setter Hunter called her own number. It was only her second kill in 12 attempts, but it went down when it mattered.

“I was thinking I haven't really dumped in a while, and to try to keep them honest,” Hunter said. “The pass was tight and it led me there, and I finally got a joust that I won. Honestly, I was a little surprised. It was a great way to win the match.”

Semifinal #2: No. 2 Florida Survives Five-Set Slugfest With No. 3 Stanford

Despite being the No. 2 seed to Stanford’s No. 3, Florida was in every other way an underdog in the second semifinal of the night.

The Gators have never won a national championship, where Stanford has won seven. Florida also hasn’t been back to the Final Four since 2003, while of course Stanford was there just last year, winning the 2016 title with a very young starting lineup.

In a roller coaster of a match, the Gators won sets one and two, before letting the Cardinal back in in sets three and four. But the fifth set was all about Florida, as the Gators held Stanford to a -.040 hitting percentage with three blocks from Rhamat Alhassan and Cheyenne Huskey and won the match 25-22, 25-21, 18-25, 18-25, 15-10.

Why the tone of surprise? pic.twitter.com/3LldJfkYI4

— Gators Volleyball (@GatorsVB) December 15, 2017

“I think the difference in the match was as we anticipated," Florida head coach Mary Wise said. "It was going to be the serve-pass game . . . We went through a five-set match without giving up a single reception error and created at least enough first contact chaos against a very, very good offensive team."

Senior middle blocker Alhassan led the Gators with 17 kills, hitting .517, and she really turned it up in the fifth set, smashing three kills to the floor in addition to her three block assists with Huskey.

“I just know that my thought process going into it was that my team needs me. My team relies on me,” Alhassan said. “And if someone is struggling next to me, that I'm going to find a way to help them and ease the burden, and that's kind of the mentality I took. I turned to our setters and I said, ‘I don't care where you are. Find me, set me the ball.’”

.@ra_montie with the fifth-set takeover, and @Rachael5Kramer with the close out!

We've got a shot at it all come Saturday! pic.twitter.com/d1ZZ5XeSB2

— Gators Volleyball (@GatorsVB) December 15, 2017

Senior outside hitter Carli Snyder was another fifth-set hero, making some extraordinary defensive plays, proving to the diehard fans who stayed inside the Sprint Center well past 11 PM why Florida has the second lowest opponent hitting percentage of any team in the country.

The victory marks Florida’s second trip to the national championship match.