6 things to know about the Nebraska volleyball schedule

Details about the schedule for the Nebraska volleyball team for the upcoming season have gradually become known over the past five months, and now the schedule is complete with 20 league matches and 11 nonconference matches. Here are six things to know about the schedule.

While each year someone says that the Big Ten Conference is so good and deep that the league champion may have several losses, the reality is you can only lose a few league matches and still have a good chance to win the Big Ten title. In the past 19 years only once has the Big Ten champion had more than two league losses. That makes Nebraska’s two matches against Wisconsin really big again.

Nebraska and Wisconsin play twice, with both matches coming in the final month of the regular season. The Huskers play at Wisconsin on Nov. 1, and the Badgers come to Lincoln on Nov. 23. Nebraska will play 14 Big Ten opponents once each, and three opponents twice. The three teams NU will play twice are Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin.

Don’t worry, Nebraska volleyball won’t be playing on Sept. 20 when the Nebraska football team has a Friday night home game against Illinois. As for the end of the season, Nov. 29 might need to be a two-TV setup (football at Iowa at 6:30; volleyball at Penn State with time TBA).

Many seasons the Big Ten title comes down to the final week of the regular season, and if that’s the case again this year, Nebraska’s path is difficult but not overwhelming. NU will be on the road for the final two days of the Big Ten season, playing at Penn State on Friday and Maryland on Saturday. That’s part of a stretch when seven of Nebraska’s final 10 matches will be on the road.

The Big Ten has 18 teams now with the addition of Southern California, UCLA, Oregon and Washington. And Nebraska gets a feel for the new Big Ten right away in the first week of the league season by playing two of the new teams.

The Huskers are home for the opening week of the Big Ten season with a Friday match against UCLA and a Sunday match against USC. The Trojans have Nebraska transfer Ally Batenhorst on the team.

College volleyball is getting closer to college basketball with matches played on many days of the week, instead of largely on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. This year some of that is due to the expanded Big Ten, and some due to Nebraska playing in a showcase match against Kentucky on a Tuesday to open the season, a few days earlier than the normal Friday start to the season.

Here are the days of the week Nebraska is playing on: Tuesday (three times), Wednesday (two), Thursday (four), Friday (eight), Saturday (11) and Sunday (three).

Six of the Big Ten teams for this season ended last season ranked in the AVCA poll – Nebraska (second), Wisconsin (third), Oregon (seventh), Penn State (12th), Purdue (13th) and Southern California (24th). Nebraska’s nonconference schedule also has several teams that were ranked at the end of last season with Stanford (fifth), Louisville (sixth), Kentucky (10th), Creighton (15th) and Arizona State (16th). Overall, Nebraska has six matches against top-10 teams from last season.