Final Four Preview: Husker volleyball confidence aligned with talent level

The week that volleyball teams across the country have been dreaming of has arrived.

The Final Four matches will take place on Thursday at 6:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. and the National Championship game is on Saturday at 8:00 p.m. on ESPN2.

No. 10 Nebraska battles No. 3 Pitt on Thursday in the second match on ESPN. No. 1 Louisville and No. 4 Wisconsin play in the early match at 6:00 p.m.

Here is a preview of the Final Four teams in the NCAA tournament.

The Cardinals are having a historic season as they received the program’s first No. 1 ranking in the AP poll and No. 1 seed for the NCAA tournament. Louisville is also going to their first Final Four.

The undefeated Cardinals are led by Dani Busboom Kelly, a former Nebraska volleyball player and assistant coach. Busboom Kelly was named the ACC Coach of the Year and has a chance at winning the AVCA Coach of the Year.

“I’ll always root for her except for when we’re playing them but I’m very proud of Dani,” Husker Head Coach John Cook said. “I’m not surprised what she’s done. She’s done an amazing job and she’s done it really quickly, which I’m sure she’s gonna have a good shot of being the coach of the year, but to go undefeated to this point is really, really hard.”

Louisville went through UIC, Ball St. No. 16 Florida and No. 8 Georgia Tech to reach the Final Four. The Yellow Jackets lost 3-1 despite an impressive 27-kill performance by AVCA First-Team All-American Mariana Brambilla.

Outside hitter Claire Chaussee had a team-high 18 kills and hit .348 for the Cardinals. Louisville hit .214 during the match.

The Cardinals are ranked No. 2 in Division I volleyball in blocks per set (3.03), No. 3 in opponent hitting percentage (.137), No. 5 in hitting percentage (.300) and No. 9 team total blocks (327).

If both the Huskers and Louisville win, Nebraska will be the best floor defense Louisville has seen this season as the Huskers average 17.06 digs per set. None of the Cardinals’ opponents are within the top 50 in digs per set.

Louisville’s All-Americans:

Setter Tori Dilfer:

Dilfer, a 5-foot-11 setter, is a 2021 AVCA First-Team All-American, the East Region Player of the Year and the ACC Setter of the Year. The graduate student averages 10.79 assists per set and has 60 blocks on the season. She does a good job of running Louisville’s offense and mixing up the offense with the Cardinals many talented hitters.

Middle Blocker Anna Stevenson:

Stevenson has the second most kills on the team as a middle. She had 298 kills and averages 2.81 kills per set. The 2021 AVCA First-Team All-American has 142 blocks on the season and averages 1.34 per set. Stevenson is second in blocks on the team behind Amaya Tillman.

Outside hitter Anna DeBeer:

DeBeer was named an AVCA 2021 Third-Team All-American after she led Louisville with 323 kills as a sophomore. The left-side hitter averaged 3.77 points per set and hit .262. DeBeer also has the second most digs on the team (247) and 44 blocks.

Biggest wins of 2021 with NCAA seeds: No. 3 Pitt (twice), No. 6 Purdue, No. 7 Kentucky, No. 8 Georgia Tech (three times) and No. 10 Nebraska

Pitt is also heading to its first Final Four match in program history. They are in the ACC along with Louisville, making this one of the best seasons in ACC volleyball history.

The Panthers are No. 7 in the country with 14.38 points per set and No. 10 with a .286 hitting percentage. They run a 6-2 system which means they use two setters, something Nebraska hasn’t seen in the Big Ten.

Pitt’s path to the Final Four consisted of beating UMBC, Penn State, Kansas and No. 6 Purdue. Outside hitter Leketor Member-Meneh had 21 kills and hit .383 against Purdue.

“They’re very well-coached. They serve well. They pass well, and they’ve been in some wars,” Cook said. “So this is the final four, you’re going to play great teams here and so it’ll be a really great challenge for us but I’m very impressed with Pitt.”

The Panthers lost to Washington in the Elite Eight in the 2020 season but relied on their experienced, older players and their range of talented hitters to make it to the Final Four.

Pitt’s All-Americans:

Outside hitter Kayla Lund:

Lund is Pitt’s first-ever First-Team All-American in program history. The graduate student averages 3.04 kills per set and has recorded 328 kills this season. The 6-foot-0 outside hitter contributed 244 digs and 26 blocks. At the service line, Lund has 31 aces on the season and averages 0.29.

Outside hitter Leketor Member-Meneh:

While Member-Meneh is undersized for an outside hitter, standing at 5-foot-8, but she makes up for it with her vertical and fast swing. The 2021 AVCA Second-Team All-American transferred to Pitt after four seasons at Missouri, spending three seasons with Nebraska volleyball player Kayla Caffey.

Member-Meneh has 351 kills and averages 3.22 kills per set. She is hitting .284 on the season and adds 54 blocks.

Opposite hitter Chinaza Ndee:

Ndee is Pitt’s only third-team AVCA All-American selection in 2021. The 5-foot-11 hitter leads Pitt in kills (372) and points (424) and is hitting .285 this season. She is second on the team with 97 blocks behind Serena Gray, an All-American Honorable Mention.

Biggest wins of 2021 with NCAA seeds: No. 5 Baylor, No. 11 BYU, No. 8 Georgia Tech, Penn State and No. 6 Purdue

The Badgers has been knocking on the door of a national championship for a few seasons with All-Americans Sydney Hilley and Dana Rettke and a very talented supporting cast. Wisconsin went to the Final Four in 2020 and fell to Stanford in the 2019 National Championship.

The Big Ten champion for three consecutive seasons (2019, 2020, 2021) has not won a national championship in program history. The Badgers seem to have all the pieces in place to do just that.

Wisconsin is No. 2 in the country with kills per set (15.18), No. 3 with 13.54 assists per set, No. 6 with a .296 team hitting percentage, No. 15 in opponent hitting percentage (.159) and more.

Nebraska fell to Wisconsin twice this season, only winning one set out of seven. In fact, the Badgers have defeated the Huskers in the last seven matchups.

In the 2021 NCAA tournament, Wisconsin took down Colgate, Florida Gulf Coast, No. 13 UCLA and No. 12 Minnesota. The Badgers beat the Gophers for the third time this season in the Elite Eight (25-18, 26-24, 25-22).

Wisconsin’s All-Americans:

Setter Sydney Hilley:

Hilley is one of the best setters in the country and is a three-time AVCA First-Team All-American (2019, 2020, 2021). She is the Big Ten Setter of the Year for three consecutive seasons. The 6-foot-0 setter is elite at her position but also as a defensive player. She has 294 digs and 72 blocks.

Middle blocker Dana Rettke:

Rettke became the first player to be named an AVCA First-Team All-American five times. The 6-foot-7 middle blocker leads the team with 3.49 kills per set and 1.37 blocks per set. Rettke is third in the country with a .446 hitting percentage and is No. 10 in the country in blocks per set.

Libero Lauren Barnes:

Barnes, an AVCA second-team All-American, received her first All-American honor after leading Wisconsin’s floor defense. The 5-foot-6 libero had 481 digs this season, averaging 4.29 digs per set and 75 assists. Barnes has the second most service aces on the team with 33, averaging 0.29 aces per set.

Biggest wins of 2021 with NCAA seeds: No. 5 Baylor, No. 7 Kentucky, No. 9 Ohio State, No. 10 Nebraska (twice, No. 12 Minnesota (three times) and Penn State

You may know this team, its players and watched all their games but this Nebraska squad looks completely different than how they did in the preseason and even at the beginning of November.

Middle blocker Lauren Stivrins said it’s because of Nebraska’s confidence level and the big boost it got from defeating No. 2 Texas at home in the regional final.

“I think that was a huge confidence booster for our team,” the sixth-year senior said. “I’ve talked about this previously, how one of our team’s biggest struggles is not that we weren’t talented enough, our talent was (high), but our confidence was here (lower) and a few big wins in and it’s slowly starting to align. Once they do, we’re gonna be pretty much unstoppable.”

Stivrins said the Texas match is a game where the Huskers’ confidence rose to meet its talent level. She added that the Huskers knew going into the regional finals that they would find a way to win.

“We knew we were the better team, we might have been outmatched talent-wise, maybe just a little bit, they’ve got some big physical hitters and experienced hitters at that,” Stivrins said. “But we definitely play with a lot more heart and we love what we do.”

This confidence that the Huskers are trying to harness for Pitt on Thursday could be beneficial to have against the Panther’s fast offense.

“We just knew going into that that somehow we were going to win,” Stivrins said of the Texas match. “We didn’t know how but we were gonna find a way and we were going to do it together. And I think that that belief carried us through and I think that will carry us through moving forward.”

Road to Columbus: The Huskers took down Campbell and Florida State in the Devaney Sports Center. Then they went to Austin, Texas for the regional finals to defeat Illinois for the third time this season and Texas at home for the first time since 2010.

Nebraska’s All-Americans:

Libero Lexi Rodriguez:

Freshman Lexi Rodriguez has quickly turned herself into “part of the heartbeat of our mindset and attitude,” as Cook said.

Rodriguez is the first freshman to be named an AVCA first-team All-American since Dana Rettke in 2017. The 5-foot-5 libero is the second Husker freshman to be a first-team selection, joining Sarah Pavan, a World Champion in beach volleyball.

The awards keep on coming for Rodriguez, she was also a first-team All-Big Ten selection and was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. Cook said “that might be as big of an accomplishment as being named first-team All-American.

The freshman from Sterling, Ill. averaged 4.45 digs and 1.13 assists per set. Rodriguez recorded a career-high 28 digs against Purdue and Minnesota. Against Texas in the NCAA tournament, she had 20 digs and four assists.

Middle blocker Kayla Caffey:

Caffey is one of the most improved players on Nebraska’s roster. After transferring from Missouri and training with the Huskers, Caffey has turned into one of the best middle blockers in the country.

The second-team All-American overcame her size disadvantages by increasing her vertical over five inches during the off-season. Caffey is ranked No. 42 in the country with a .376 hitting percentage and averages 1.13 blocks per set.

Caffey has one year of eligibility remaining and could return to Nebraska for her seventh year in college. This would be a big boost for the Huskers as Stivrins is leaving and there isn’t much experience at the middle blocker position outside of the Huskers seniors.

Outside hitter Madi Kubik:

Kubik stepped up in the 2021 season and became Nebraska’s No. 1 left-side hitter. The third-team All-American averaged 3.49 kills and 2.09 digs per set. The first-team All-Big Ten selection added 51 blocks and 18 aces. Kubik was named on the NCAA Austin Regional All-Tournament Team.

She is the most consistent outside hitter during Nebraska’s entire season. Kubik had 23 double-doubles in Nebraska’s 32 matches.

Setter Nicklin Hames:

Hames was named an All-American Honorable Mention for the third time in her career (2018 2019, 2021). In 2020, the 5-foot-10 setter was a second-team All-American selection.

The junior lead an offense with seven hitters that could potentially play. Hames averaged 10.71 assists, 3.35 digs and added 48 blocks and 31 aces. The Maryville, Tenn. native is one of Nebraska’s four “elite” defensive players, as Cook calls them. Hames, a three-time captain, is the leading of the offense and an emotional leader on the court.

Biggest wins of 2021 with NCAA seeds: No. 2 Texas, No. 6 Purdue (twice), No. 14 Creighton and Penn State (twice)