It feels like a lot of night games in a row, no? And, Nebraska volleyball’s big week

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Four straight home games wasn’t that long ago. Turn back the clock to 2022 with vs. North Dakota, vs. Georgia Southern, vs. Oklahoma and vs. Indiana. But, there was a bye week between Oklahoma and Indiana. And the whole mid-season firing of Scott Frost, so it’s easy to forget that.

Four straight home games without an idle week? That happened in 2013 when Nebraska opened the season with five (!) straight home games. That stretch was Wyoming, Southern Miss, UCLA, South Dakota State and Illinois.

The last iteration of three straight night games was also, weirdly enough, in 2022. Indiana was at 6:30, at Rutgers on a Friday night was at 6 p.m., and then at Purdue at 6:30 p.m.

The longest stretch of consecutive night games that I can find in recent history was in 2017 when Nebraska played at Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio State and at Purdue. There was also a four-game night stretch in 2014 with Miami, Illinois, at Michigan State and at Northwestern.

But three straight night games at home? You have to go all the way back to 2008 for that.

Nebraska hosted New Mexico State, Virginia Tech and No. 4 Missouri for a three-game stretch in late September and early October. NMSU was at 6 p.m., Virginia Tech was at 7 p.m. and Mizzou was at 8 p.m.

There are two tough, tough, tough nonconference matches left to go this week for Nebraska. The No. 5 Huskers host No. 2 Stanford on Wednesday and travel to No. 4 Louisville for a Sunday match on ABC.

I think we’ll learn a lot about who Nebraska is through those two matches. I think we learned a lot about them against Creighton in what was an instant classic in a rivalry full of great matchups in recent years.

Resiliency is key for Nebraska. These will not be easy. Not everything will go their way. But they cannot get down on themselves, like they did against SMU. When that happens, everything unravels. But if they fight and scratch and claw like they did against Creighton, and play with intensity in response, then things will end up working out in the end.

But, to borrow an oft-used line from Cook, nothing happens without keying in on serve and pass.

The Nebraska volleyball sellout streak began in 2001 and is now at 326 straight sellouts. The 327th will be against Stanford on Wednesday.

The 300th sellout was in 2022 in a straight-sets victory over Iowa. Nebraska finished the 2023 season with 319 straight sellouts — an NCAA women’s record.

The Memorial Stadium match and any future match at Pinnacle Bank Arena aren’t counted into the figure.

When, in theory, could Nebraska volleyball surpass football in sellouts?

Nebraska volleyball will finish the regular season with 337 sellouts, while Nebraska football — which will celebrate its 400th sellout on Friday — is on track to finish the season with 403 sellouts.

The tricky thing is knowing how many home matches Nebraska volleyball will have in a given year. This year, the Huskers have 18 guaranteed home matches and could have up to four more home matches for the NCAA Tournament. Last year, Nebraska had 21 matches at Devaney. The year before? Nineteen. The year before? Eighteen. In 2019? Nineteen.

For the sake of easy math, let’s presume Nebraska volleyball has 20 home matches per season. Nebraska football, unless it hosts a playoff game down the line, has seven home games per season.

So, in 2025: 357 volleyball sellouts, 410 football sellouts.

In 2026: 377 volleyball sellouts, 417 football sellouts.

In 2027: 397 volleyball sellouts, 424 football sellouts.

In 2028: 417 volleyball sellouts, 431 football sellouts.

In 2029: 437 volleyball sellouts, 438 football sellouts.

In 2030: 457 volleyball sellouts, 445 football sellouts.

Now, of course, this is based on easy math. Volleyball surpassing football could come a little sooner than 2030, but that looks like the target — assuming that the sellout streaks for both stay intact.

Everyone goes a different route, but I like to look at the spread first. If it’s close, say a pick ‘em or less than three points, then I look at other things. Is the home-field advantage for the home team good? What’s the weather going to be like? Any serious injuries to either team? Is the team on a hot streak? Sometimes I pick an upset just to pick an upset.

All that to say, though, it’s a crapshoot. After all that research, I’m still tied for last in our pool. Maybe I need to make some adjustments. Ha.