Everywhere that the Nebraska volleyball team traveled during its training trip to Asia last spring, from every dark gymnasium where the Huskers played to every restaurant where they ate, head coach John Cook made it a point to ask his players how comfortable they were being uncomfortable.

“It seemed like he said that to us every five minutes,” senior Dani Mancuso recalled Saturday, “because obviously, we were out of our comfort zone over there.”

The 16-day trip, Cook said, was all about preparing Nebraska for what’s now just ahead. With Saturday’s impressive sweep of Northern Iowa in the Huskers’ comfort zone that is the sold-out Coliseum, the easy part is over.

Now, the top-ranked Huskers’ dreams ride on how comfortable they can be playing next weekend’s regional at Florida. After all, an NU team has never made it through a regional where there weren’t thousands of red-clad fans and plenty of home cooking.

“When we had bad practices, when we got drilled a couple of times, I talked to them about the mentality that we have to play with when we’re tired, when it’s the end of the year, when we’re in somebody else’s gym,” Cook said.

“There’s no tougher road trip that you can put these guys through,” he added, “and now they know they can play great on the road. We know it’s going to be very tough, but we have what it takes to get it done.”

Saturday’s 30-16, 30-16, 30-14 win against the Panthers in the second round of the NCAA Tournament was validation of that.

Coming on the heels of Friday’s subpar performance against American, a first-round match in which Nebraska became the first No. 1 seed to drop a tournament game since the field expanded to 64 teams a decade ago, the effectiveness of the Huskers in bouncing back soothed a lot of upset stomachs at the end of a week in which the flu bug had passed through the team.

Cook said he expected a solid performance, but not even he could have imagined the ease with which the Huskers advanced. Among the highlights:

n NU not only hit .423, but was as consistently effective offensively as at any point in the season. Nebraska hit .400 or better in all three games, the first time that’s happened all year. All seven attackers who played and took swings hit .333 or better.

n Defensively, the combination of Nebraska’s block and floor defense made it virtually impossible for Northern Iowa to get kills. The Panthers, who hit .092, finished with 28 kills, 12 of those from freshman Shannon Aschoff. Nebraska had 23 kills alone in the first game.

n Nebraska served efficiently — seven aces compared with just five errors — and passed successfully. Saturday’s match was the first time all season that NU didn’t yield an ace. Also absent were the communication breakdowns and “crazy plays” that beset the Huskers on Friday.

“Last night was an uncomfortable feeling, especially after I looked at our stats,” Cook said. “They were just the most miserable, awful-looking stats I’ve seen in years.

“So I knew we would respond today, but I didn’t know that we would respond at this level. You’ve got to give credit to the leadership of this team. These guys wanted to make a statement.”

Sophomore Jordan Larson led the offensive, scoring 16 kills on .464 hitting and adding three blocks, three aces and nine digs. A healthy Sarah Pavan added 11 kills and Tracy Stalls bounced back from her worst hitting night in more than a year to hit .467 with 10 kills.

Stalls and Mancuso each had a hand in four blocks and Dani Busboom combined with Rachel Schwartz for 27 digs, just one off the Panthers’ total as a team.

“They do everything really well,” the Panthers’ Kristin Belzung said.

From here, doing everything well is likely what it will take for the Huskers’ season to continue.

In Friday afternoon’s regional semifinal, the Huskers will face 16th-seeded San Diego, a team that Nebraska swept in its season opener back in August. A win there and NU would face either Minnesota, the No. 8 seed, or a No. 9 Florida team that loses on its home court about as often as Nebraska falters at the Coliseum.

Nebraska went 19-0 at home this season, with the prospects of two more “home” matches in Omaha. But before anyone dreams too much about that, the Huskers first must hit the road.

“We knew we were going to have to travel, that we were going to have to deal with the cards we were dealt — good or bad — and now, it’s about how we respond,” Mancuso said, adding something that Nebraska fans can take comfort in this week.

“I definitely think we’re not finished yet,” she said.

Reach Todd Henrichs at 473-7439 or thenrichs@journalstar.com.

It’s in the numbers

* NU advanced to the “Sweet 16” for the 13th consecutive season.

* With 11 digs in Saturday’s win, Sarah Pavan surpassed 500 for the season. She’s just the fifth Husker to do so.

* Dani Mancuso, who came into the tournament with 56 blocks this season, combined for 10 against American and Northern Iowa.

* All-time, Nebraska improved to 43-3 in NCAA matches at the Coliseum. The Huskers’ home-court winning streak reached 54, the eighth-longest in NCAA history.

* Florida officials have sold 4,000 advance tickets to next weekend’s regional. The O’Connell Center, home to the Gators’ national champion men’s basketball team, seats 11,000.