Nebraska volleyball head coach John Cook, setter Anni Evans and outside hitter Lindsay Krause met with the media on Thursday to discuss their three matches starting on Friday and to recap their previous two matches.
The Huskers play Omaha at 11:00 a.m. and Georgia at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. The Georgia match will be televised on BTN and the Omaha match will be on BTN+. Nebraska vs. Arizona State at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday will also be on BTN+.
Here are some notes on their comments:
*** Cook said setter Nicklin Hames, who missed last week’s two games due to an ankle injury, practiced and should be ready to play on Friday and/or Saturday.
“She’s pretty fired up,” he said.
*** Since Hames is coming off of an injury, it’s possible she won’t have enough stamina to play in all three matches.
“I got to watch how she fatigues because that’s where you can get in trouble a little bit,” Cook said. “We have three matches so we’ve got to watch that and see how she’s doing, depends on how long the matches go.”
*** Middle blocker Lauren Stivrins returned to practice after suffering a back injury in the spring. Cook said she hit “a little bit” on Thursday but he doesn’t know when she’ll be able to play in a game.
“Today was a baby step, we’ll see how she feels tomorrow and then baby step again and see how fast we can progress,” Cook said. “Each day, I think we can build a little bit more as long as she’s handling the load. She did really good today.”
*** Other top-ranked teams across the country like Stanford, Texas, Minnesota and more have already played top-ranked matches. Nebraska has not yet however, Cook isn’t worried about the schedule being too easy.
“We’re playing Stanford a couple of weeks, we’re playing Utah,” he said. “We’re playing Creighton, Louisville, so our schedule is continuing to ramp up.
“I like our schedule builds toward the Big Ten,” Cook said.
*** Cook said the Ameritas Players Challenge, which begins on Friday and features Omaha, Georgia and Arizona State, has talented teams that will push his team.
“This is gonna be a really good tournament to win these,” he said. “These teams are all good.”
*** Cook said Lauren Cook West, his daughter, former Nebraska setter and current radio host, coached Evans in private lessons when Evans was in high school at Waverly.
“The first time they were down here setting and I’m up in my office and I’m like, ‘who’s that?’ And Lauren told me it was Anni Evans. She had been in camp and stuff. And she looked pretty good,” he said with a smile.
“I think Lauren was the one that may have encouraged her to take a shot at Nebraska,” Cook said.
He said Lauren gets excited when Evans plays well and always asks him how she’s doing.
*** On Saturday, August 28, Evans entered Nebraska’s fourth set with little warning vs. Kansas State with her team down 12-6. She led a comeback and NU defeated the Wildcats 25-22 to win the match.
“Right when he called the timeout, he told me,” Evan said of when she knew she was playing. “So however long timeouts are, that’s how much time I had.”
*** Nebraska needed a spark in that fourth match and Evans said she tried to bring it.
“I guess my goal when I went in was trying to be really free and play like I know how to play and then also just bring a lot of passion and energy to the team,” she said. “I wanted to fire them up and get everyone back, ready to go.”
*** After the K-State game, Cook said Evans would probably remember that set for the rest of her life. Evans said she was “super excited” with how she played.
“It just made me really happy to see how my team played for me and how they got me right back in (the game) and I was ready to go and then we just went for it,” she said.
*** Krause was on the court during that fourth set after NU lost the third set 25-11 against the Wildcats.
“I think we saw, as a team, what we can do,” she said. “After coming out of that hole, we came together really hard. And then we finished and we had great bench support or support from the team.”
*** Krause said Evans sparked the entire team in the fourth set.
“Anni has this fire inside her so whenever she gets onto the court, she brings it,” Krause said. “Every time she walks on the court, she’s brings everybody’s level (up).
“She’s such a hard worker, so it makes everyone want to work harder for her,” she said.
*** Three former Omaha Skutt players will be playing in the Devaney Sports center on Friday and Saturday. Krause, one of them, is excited to play against and see her former teammates Shayla McCormick (Omaha) and Allie Gray (Arizona State).
“It was really fun to get to play high school with them for all four years so to be able to have them come back this early in the season, it’s gonna be super cool,” Krause said.
*** As for this weekend, Krause said her personal goals are to improve her blocking.
“I think for me, I just like being really good on my blocking game,” she said. “It’s getting really good. And then backrow defense if I can get in the backrow.”
You must be logged in to post a comment Login