Nebraska Volleyball Dominates Big Ten Preseason Honors, Poll

The Big Ten Conference added four teams to the league, but Nebraska volleyball enters coach John Cook’s 25th season at the helm as the cream of the crop, once again.

The 18 coaches in the conference got together ahead of Big Ten Volleyball Media Days, held in Chicago Aug. 5-6, and voted on who they believed would win the conference and who should be on the preseason All-Big Ten team. The latter resulted in 11 of the 18 Big Ten schools being represented.

Nebraska led the way in both votes.

Collecting 13 first place votes, the reigning Big Ten Champions and National Runner-Up Huskers ran away with the top spot in the preseason polls.

Nebraska did plenty right in 2023: 33-2 overall, 19-1 in conference, snapped a 10-match losing streak to the Badgers of Wisconsin, finish 21-0 inside the friendly confines of the Bob Devaney Sports Center, and finish the season in the National Championship match against Texas. There is a belief NU can match, if not exceed, those number in 2024.

With the new additions of outside hitter Taylor Landfair out of Minnesota and middle blocker Layla Blackwell out of San Diego, to go along with the return of Lindsay Krause from multiple injuries that ended her season before it could get going last year, Cook and the Huskers will have plenty of talent in their quest to prove the coaches correct.

Nebraska also led the way in terms of preseason honorees with five Huskers chosen as the best in the conference: Lexi Rodriguez, Merritt Beason, Harper Murray, Bergen Reilly, and Taylor Landfair.

Rodriguez led the Huskers to a nation-leading opponent hitting percentage for the second year in a row with 3.60 digs per set, which netted her AVCA All-America First Team honors in 2023, her third career All-America honor and second selection to the first team. She joined a prestigious club as the 14th Husker in school history to earn at least three All-America honors at Nebraska. She was also named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year for the second time in her career, becoming just the fifth player in Big Ten history to receive that honor twice. She was chosen to the AVCA All-Region and All-Big Ten First Team for the third straight year.

Beason averaged 3.76 kills per set on .282 hitting with 2.05 digs per set earning her AVCA All-America First Team honors in 2023. She was also selected as the AVCA North Region Player of the Year, joining her assistant coach Kelly Hunter as the only two Huskers to earn that title. She was also named to the AVCA All-Region Team and earned All-Big Ten First Team honors unanimously in her first year with Nebraska.

Murray finished second on the team with 3.23 kills per set and had a .237 hitting percentage to go with 2.07 digs per set and a team-high 36 service aces which was good enough to earn her a spot on the AVCA All-America Third Team, All-Big Ten First Team, Big Ten All-Freshman Team and AVCA All-Region team. She was also the Big Ten Freshman of the Year and the AVCA North Region Freshman of the Year.

Reilly led all Big Ten setters with 10.51 assists per set, and engineered a Huskers offense that hit .273 on the season, which ranked second in the Big Ten and top 25 nationally. She was named an AVCA Second-Team All-American, AVCA All-Region, Big Ten Setter of the Year, All-Big Ten First Team and Big Ten All-Freshman Team. She became the first freshman to win Big Ten Setter of the Year since the award originated in 2012.

After winning Big Ten Player of the Year in 2022 at Minnesota, last season was not what was expected for Landfair. She did earn AVCA All-Region honors and All-Big Ten First Team accolades for the third time. She averaged 3.19 kills and 2.03 digs per set for Minnesota.

The Huskers also had two of their preseason selections, Rodriguez and Beason, join Penn State’s Jess Mruzik as the only three unanimous selections by the coaches.

Nebraska was one of three teams with multiple players on the preseason list. Purdue garners two selections with Eva Hudson and Chloe Chicoine and Wisconsin tallies three players with Carter Booth, Anna Smrek, and the 2023 AVCA National Player of the Year and Big Ten Player of the Year, Sarah Franklin.

Just as they do for other sports, Big Ten Volleyball Media Days will feature coaches and player for every team. Nebraska will be represented by Cook, Kennedi Orr, and Lindsay Krause.

The first chance to catch the Big Ten Preseason favorite Huskers and their five preseason All-Conference selections will be the Red-White Scrimmage that will take place inside the Bob Devaney Sports Complex on August 24. The regular season starts in Louisville, Kentucky, inside the KFC Yum! Center on August 27 against former Nebraska assistant Craig Skinner and his Kentucky Wildcats as part of the AVCA First Serve Showcase.

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