The Rally: Husker Volleyball hosts first two rounds of NCAA Tournament

No. 10 Nebraska Volleyball’s seniors will be playing their final game in the Devaney Sports Center as the Huskers host the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament on Friday and Saturday.

Six-year seniors Lauren Stivrins and Lexi Sun will for sure say their goodbyes to Devaney but Nicklin Hames, Callie Schwarzenbach and Kayla Caffey could all decide to return for another season.

Nebraska plays Campbell on Friday at 7 p.m. or 30 minutes after the 4:30 p.m. match between Kansas State and Florida State is over. The winners of the two matches will play at 7 p.m. on Saturday night. Each game will be streamed on ESPN+ (subscription required).

Here is a full breakdown of all the teams playing in Devaney this weekend:

Campbell (21-9, 14-2):

The Campbell Fighting Camels won its first Big South Conference championship and are now traveling to Lincoln for its first NCAA tournament match in history. Campbell is a private university located in Buies Creek, North Carolina.

Campbell is a lot smaller size-wise, especially on the pins, than the Huskers are used to. Nebraska Head Coach John Cook said on Husker Radio Network that the size will take some time to adjust to.

The Fighting Camels Head Coach Greg Goral is in his ninth season as Campbell’s coach. His team has the best opponent hitting percentage in the Big South with a .149 clip and is second in opponent kills per set.

Florida State (19-9, 11-7):

The Seminoles finished fifth overall in the ACC. Florida State leads the conference with 15.80 digs per set and is fourth in opponent blocks with 1.84 per set. They ranked last or second to last in opponent assists (11.99), opponent kills (13.17) and opponent digs (16.29).

Florida State is coached by Chris Poole, who is the fourth-winningest active Division I coach in the NCAA with 875 career DI victories. Poole has coached Seminoles for 14 seasons.

The Seminoles had five players selected for ACC postseason awards including three freshmen on the All-Freshman Team and outside hitter Morgan Chacon as a second-team selection.

Kansas State (15-12, 6-10):

After starting off their season in Lincoln at the Husker Invitational, the Wildcats finished seventh out of the nine teams in the Big 12 conference and were one of the last four teams selected for the NCAA tournament.

Kansas State lost to Nebraska 3-1 on Sept. 28 in the Devaney Sports Center (25-27, 27-25, 11-25, 25-22). The Wildcats hit .556 to power past the Huskers in the third set. Opposite hitter Haley Warner had 11 kills and hit .556. They out-blocked the Huskers 10.5 to 5.5 on the match.

Claranne Fechter, Campbell:

The Fighting Camels’ libero Claranne Fechter is third in the Big South with 4.56 digs per set. The 5-foot-9 athlete was named on the All-Big South Second-team and the all-freshman team in 2020.

Fechter had a season-high 31 digs in Campbell’s five-set loss to Davidson. She has had five matches with over 25 digs in the 2021 season. She has 104 assists and 17 service aces.

Lailah Green, Campbell:

Outside hitter Lailah Green was a 2020 First-Team All-Big South selection. The 5-foot-10 junior leads the team with 293 kills, averaging 2.62 kills per set. She is hitting .120 on the season.

The Bakersfield, Cali. native has the second-most digs on the team with 258, adding 38 blocks and serves 0.23 aces per set.

Emma Clothier, Florida State:

Middle blocker Emma Clothier is the Seminoles’ only First-Team All-ACC selection in 2021. She was on the 2020 All-ACC First-Team and was selected on the 2019 All-Freshman team as well.

The 6-foot-2 junior has a team-high 270 kills and averages 2.65 per set. She hit .327 on the season with 68 digs and 85 blocks. Clothier finished ninth in the ACC with 0.31 service aces per set and 32 total aces. Her teammate, Morgan Chacon, is No. 10 with 0.30 aces per set.

Audrey Koenig, Florida State:

Outside hitter Audrey Koenig was selected on ACC All-Freshman Team as she had 240 kills and hit .207 during her first year at Florida State. The 6-foot-3 hitter averages 2.49 kills per set and recorded 57 digs and 33 blocks during the regular season.

Aliyah Carter, Kansas State:

Outside hitter Aliyah Carter is the only Kansas State player to receive a postseason honor as she was selected on the All-Big 12 First-Team. The 5-foot-9 sophomore finished the regular season with the second-most kills per set (4.06) in the conference and the third most points per set (4.49).

Carter had 14 kills against Nebraska in September but hit .080 with 10 errors. She had a double-double with 16 digs and added two blocks.

Mackenzie Morris, Kansas State:

Libero Mackenzie Morris leads the team with 414 digs with Carter behind her with 261 digs. The 5-foot-7 sophomore ranks No. 4 with 3.99 digs per set in the Big 12. Morris finished with the ninth highest service aces per set (0.31).

Against the Huskers, Morris had a team-high 19 digs, three assists and one ace. She had six games of over 20 digs this season with a high of 24.

.053:

No. 6 seed Purdue hit .053 against Nebraska as they fell 3-1 to the Huskers. The Boilermakers had 36 kills with 28 hitting errors.

Nebraska held Purdue to their two lowest hitting percentages of the season. The Huskers hit .214 in the first match in October and .204 in the most recent matchup.

The Huskers played solid, aggressive volleyball and bounced back after losing the third set 25-22 and taking the last set 25-15.

Despite the outcome, Nebraska still has lots of room for improvement as four outside hitters, excluding Madi Kubik, were high error. If the Huskers can get even one more hitter to step up along with Kubik, this team would look completely different, in a good way.

Holding Purdue to hitting .053 is an incredible feat in itself and shows what this Husker team could potentially do in the tournament.

14:

In the first set against Nebraska, Wisconsin scored 14 points. That is the least amount of points the Badgers have scored in a 25-point set this season. The previous low was 16 against Baylor, the No. 5 overall seed in the tournament.

The Huskers hit .462 in the first set with only two errors and served four aces.

The set was the best set Nebraska has played all season and it was against the No. 4 overall seed in the tournament.

While the Huskers couldn’t sustain that level of play for the remainder of the four sets, they came with two points for winning the second and third sets.

On Huskers Radio Network after the match, Cook said that he was pleased with his team’s performance and was proud of how they battled.

Again, another glimpse at what the Huskers could do in the tournament if they can string together some of their best, most consistent performance in the last potential six games of the season.

A totally different team:

The last time Nebraska and Kansas State played in the second game of the season, the Huskers looked completely different.

Setter Nicklin Hames was injured and supported from the bench. Freshman setter Kennedi Orr got her first start and sophomore setter Anni Evans took over in the fourth set when Nebraska had a 12-6 deficit.

Evans led NU to come back and win 25-22 in set and take the match. 12 of the Huskers final 19 points had Evans on the assist and six were from K-State hitting errors.

Middle blocker Lauren Stivrins was also out for the match and Nebraska’s freshmen were obviously extremely inexperienced.

Now Stivrins and Hames are back. Libero Lexi Rodriguez is the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. Outside hitters Lindsay Krause, Ally Batenhorst and Whitney Lauenstein have extensive experience.

But yet again, just as Nebraska changed and improved, K-State has also had the time to do so.

The regional:

Let’s take a look at Nebraska’s regional.

The No. 10 seed Huskers are in the same regional as No. 2 Texas, No. 7 Kentucky and No. 15 Washington.

Cook said he is very interested in the reasoning behind this group of teams in the same section of the bracket based on how each team finished in its conference:

Nebraska: No. 2 in the Big Ten

Texas: Big 12 Champions

Kentucky: SEC Champions

Washington: PAC-12 Champions

So that fourth of the bracket is stacked with some of the winningest teams in the country.

Add on a dangerous Illinois team, Hawaii and Mississippi State, who is ranked No. 23 in the AP poll, plus Rice and San Diego that received votes to be ranked. Whoever wins this region will have to battle for every point.

Yes, this is the NCAA tournament. It’s not made to be easy. But putting three Power 5 conference champions and Nebraska, who finished second in arguably the most competitive conference, will make this tournament even more interesting.

Lexi Rodriguez with historic freshman campaign:

Rodriguez is the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. She is the second freshman to win such an award and the second Husker. The first Husker was gold medalist libero Justine Wong-Orantes.

The 2021 First-Team All-Big Ten selection is the type who can take over a match and deflate offenses just as one player.

“(Rodriquez) has always been a stud since she got to the program,” defensive specialist Kenzie Knuckles said. “She’s always been great. And it’s kind of just been like, that’s what (Rodriquez) does. But she actually has gotten a lot better and I didn’t think that was possible because the girl does everything.”

Rodriguez, Knuckles and Nebraska’s floor defense will have to play their best volleyball of the season to accomplish their goals. The defense has continued to get better and better each game, which is exactly what you want in December.

A system Cook hasn’t seen:

Campbell runs a system Cook said he hasn’t seen before. In the 6-2 system, Cook said Campbell’s middle blockers start at the outside hitter spot and vis versa but the players hit from where middles and hitters typically do.

Cook said Nebraska needs to not get too wrapped up in what Campbell is doing because there will be a lot of momentum on the other side of the net.

Because of the intensity and excitement of the NCAA tournament, Cook said teams play “out of their minds” when they come to Devaney and get to play in front of a huge crowd they aren’t used to.

“We have to expect them to give us a great effort,” Cook said.

Playing high-level volleyball in December:

When asked if Cook thought the team was peaking, he said he wasn’t sure if that was true but Nebraska is playing “good volleyball.”

“We played some great volleyball against Penn State and against Wisconsin, and against Purdue,” he said. “We didn’t get the result we wanted in Wisconsin but we’ve played some really high-level volleyball.”

Knuckles said she thinks Nebraska is at its highest peak of the season.

“Every day we get better and learn new things,” Knuckles said. “We’ve grown a lot throughout the season. So I think for right now, we’re at our peak, but I still think that we’re growing every day.”

There is one thing Cook knows for sure.

“Our serve, block and defense is exceptional,” he said. “That’s going to give anybody problems.”