Nebraska volleyball is one of the favorites to win the national championship in 2022

The Nebraska volleyball team has been ranked as the No. 1 team in the country by the AVCA Preseason Poll released Monday afternoon.

The Huskers return one of the most lethal lineups in the nation and in one of the country’s premier conferences as they look to capture a Big Ten championship and make another run at a national title. The Road to Omaha begins on Aug. 26 against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, and the Huskers will once again have a target on their back.

Their billing as the preseason No. 1 team in America makes them the favorite to win a national championship and a Big Ten title despite being ranked behind Wisconsin in the preseason Big Ten poll.

The Huskers will begin their 2022 campaign unofficially at 6 p.m. on Saturday at the Bob Devaney Sports Center as they hold their annual Red-White scrimmage. Huskers coach John Cook said on Monday that he plans for his team to go hard during the scrimmage.

“We’re letting them compete right now and I talked about the competitive part of it,” Cook said. “It’s not just going through practice and looking pretty. You got to win. So, we’re keeping score and on a lot of drills we are keeping track of it, and we talked about the importance of winning and it pays to be a winner.”

Nebraska has certainly known how to be a winner in the past, and it is expected to win a lot once again this season while being backed by that No. 1 ranking.

Nebraska is followed by Texas, Wisconsin, Louisville and Minnesota in the top five. The Big Ten has four teams ranked in the top 10 in Wisconsin (3), Minnesota (5) and Ohio State (7), and Purdue (15), Illinois (17) and Penn State (20) give the conference seven teams ranked in the poll.

The Huskers will have a dozen top-25 matchups in 2022, beginning with the battle against Creighton on September 7 in Omaha.