Nebraska Volleyball takes on Wichita State

#5 Nebraska (7-1) vs Wichita State (3-5)

When: Saturday, September 14th 2024, 2:00 pm (CT)

What: Nebraska Classic

Where: Bob Devaney Sports Center, Lincoln, NE

Watch: B1G+

Radio: Husker Radio Network

Live stats

Nebraska returns to the court 15 hours after they finished their match with #14 Arizona State. This fast turnaround is a test more of mental focus than of physical recovery. Husker players were given an 11 pm curfew, Coach Cook reported in his post-game interview.

This is the type of match that can get forgotten, overlooked. The Wichita State match is sandwiched between the extremely quick offense of #14 Arizona State, previously undefeated, and the highly anticipated midweek match with #2 Stanford. No matter how hard you try to NOT look forward on the schedule, you KNOW Stanford is coming to town next week.

The toughest opponent Nebraska faces is focus. Focus on execution. Focus on your routine before you serve, don’t think about the football game later on. Get your feet to the ball when the Shockers start to tip it, don’t get too far ahead and think this set is won. Be there, where your feet are, until the match point is scored.

Wichita State, for their part, will give you their best effort and performance. They will put up a smaller block and will not have the excellent serving that Arizona State did. But they will not give up.

The Shockers have wins against Kennesaw State (two) and Little Rock. They took University of Indiana to five sets, but lost. They also suffered losses to Kansas State, Kansas, Arkansas, Long Beach State and Arizona State.

We should expect to see different line ups from the Huskers as Taylor Landfair and Leyla Blackwell continue to work for their roles on this team. Against Arizona State, Merritt Beason stayed in the backrow only while she served but we may also see her stay in across the whole back row as an offensive option.

Coach Cook describes the need to have attackers that terminate the ball from the backrow and since Harper Murray has done that better than Beason, Murray plays across the back. Coach also wants Laney Choboy on the court because “she simply makes us better” according to her head coach.

This is a three set win for Nebraska. The aim is to be precise in passing and efficient in hitting. Work on the timing for setter and hitter combinations like Bergen Reilly and Rebekah Allick as well as Reilly and Beason in the backrow.

#5 Nebraska (7-1)

#2 Bergen Reilly 6’1” SO Setter
#5 Rebekah Allick 6’4” JR MB
#6 Laney Choboy 5’3” SO DS/L
#7 Maisie Boesiger 5’6” JR DS/L
#8 Lexi Rodriguez 5’5” SR DS/L
#9 Kennedi Orr 6’0” SR Setter
#10 Olivia Mauch 5’6” FR DS/L
#11 Leyla Blackwell 6’4” SR MB
#12 Taylor Landfair 6’5” SR OH
#13 Merritt Beason 6’4” SR OH
#15 Andi Jackson 6’3” SO MB
#21 Skyler Pierce 6’2” FR OH
#22 Lindsay Krause 6’4” SR OH
#27 Harper Murray 6’2” SO OH

Wichita State (3-5)

#4 Brooklyn Leggett
#5 Reagan Anderson
#6 Katie Galligan
#9 Sarah Barham
#10 Annalie Heliste
#13 Emerson Wilford
#15 Morgan Stout
#16 Izzi Strand
#24 Alyssa Gonzales