No. 10 Nebraska volleyball is returning to a sense of normalcy.
The Huskers are back in the top 10 in the AVCA coaches poll after two weeks at No. 12. They are coming off three consecutive sweeps, starting the season 4-0 in the conference.
All-American Lauren Stivrins has returned after missing the first 11 games of the season and has already made a huge impact.
Finally, NU is preparing for a matchup with Penn State, a rivalry that typically brews great volleyball matches.
Nebraska takes on No. 13 Penn State (11-3) at the Rec Hall on Friday at 6:00 p.m. on BTN. The Huskers then travel to New Jersey for a matchup with Rutgers on Sunday at noon on BTN plus.
The Rally dives into these matches, its players and storylines to watch.
Scouting the opponents:
Penn State:
The Nittany Lions (11-3) have started off 4-0 in the Big Ten. The two biggest victories were a sweep over then-No. 3 Ohio State and a five-set victory over Maryland. Most recently, Penn State beat Indiana 3-1 on Saturday behind Jonni Parker’s 19 kills and 11 digs.
Against Ohio State, the Nittany Lions hit .380. including a whopping .517 in the first set. Outside hitters Adanna Rollins led Penn State with 14 kills and Parker added 12.
Nebraska (10-3) and Penn State are the only two Big Ten schools that haven’t lost a conference game. The Nittany Lions currently lead the Big Ten with the Huskers in second.
Penn State and Nebraska didn’t play in 2020 due to COVID-19 issues within the Nittany Lions program.
The last time the two met was in a five-set battle between No. 7 Penn State and No. 8 Nebraska in 2019. The Huskers won in the Devaney Center with 20 kills by Lexi Sun, 15 from Madi Kubik and 14 from Stivrins. NU had 14 blocks compared to the Nittany Lions’ 13.
Rutgers:
The Scarlet Knights entered conference games 8-3 but started with a tough schedule. Rutgers has been swept in five consecutive matches including four against Big Ten opponents: then-20 Penn State, then-No.2 Wisconsin, Northwestern and then-No. 4 Purdue.
Because of the Scarlet Knights’ tough schedule, it could be easy to count them out. Nebraska head coach John Cook pointed out that this team should not be overlooked, especially after a big match against Penn State two days before.
Rutgers hosts Indiana (7-9, 1-3) on Friday before Nebraska on Sunday.
Players to watch:
Jonni Parker, Penn State:
Right-side outside hitter Jonni Parker is the Nittany Lions leading hitter with 182 kills and a .311 hitting percentage. She also has 47 blocks, 28 assists and 88 digs on the season.
The 6-foot hitter is a three-time AVCA All-American (third team in 2018, honorable mention in 2019, 2020). Parker was named the 2018 Big Ten Freshman of the year. In fact, Penn State has three All-Americans on its team with Parker, setter Gabby Blossom and middle blocker Kaitlyn Hord.
In her last match-up with Nebraska, Parker had 16 kills, a .264 clip, three blocks and 10 digs.
In Penn State’s five-set loss against then-No. 14 Stanford, Parker had a season-high 21 kills with three hitting errors. She hit .367 and had 13 digs and five blocks.
Kaitlyn Hord, Penn State:
Penn State’s middle blocker Kaitlyn Hord averages 1.74 blocks per set, the second-highest in the Division I volleyball behind Maryland’s Rainelle Jones, who averages 1.80 blocks per set. As a team, the Nittany Lions average the most blocks per set with 3.32 in Division I volleyball.
Hord, a three-time All-American, has 101 kills, a .359 hitting percentage and 82 blocks on the season.
Nebraska held Michigan State’s middle blocker Naya Gros, who averaged the third-most blocks per set before the match, to two blocks. One key to beating Penn State will be for NU to be aware of Hord’s big block and adjust accordingly whether that’s with hitting and/or defensive backup.
Beka Kojadinovic, Rutgers:
Right-side hitter Beka Kojadinovic is the Scarlet Knights’ leading hitter with 154 kills and a .218 clip this season. The 6-foot-1 player from Belgrade, Serbia has 113 digs, 11 assists and 27 blocks.
Kojadinovic is dangerous behind the service line with an average of .40 service aces per set, the seventh-highest in the Big Ten. She is Rutgers’ school record holder for 10 aces in a game.
The fifth-year senior has 20 service aces this season with 29 errors. This is typical of players who challenge themselves to serve tough. She had four aces and three errors against Northwestern.
Shealyn McNamara, Rutgers:
For the third game in a row, Nebraska will be facing one of the best blockers in the Big Ten.
Middle blocker Shealyn McNamara has 66 blocks this season and averages 1.29 blocks per set. She ranks No. 9 in the Big Ten behind Nebraska’s Callie Schwarzenbach with 1.33 blocks per set.
McNamara has the second-most kills on the team with 100 and is hitting .304 on the season. She hit .308 against Wisconsin with five kills and one error and had one block. The 6-foot-2 redshirt season has hit over .600 four times this season.
Stat Attack:
.462:
Nebraska had arguably its best offensive performance against Michigan as they hit .642. Before coming to Lincoln, the Wolverine’s opponents hit .151, the third-lowest in the Big Ten and ranked No. 25 in Division I volleyball in opponents hitting percentage.
Hitting that high against a Big Ten team is a large feat in itself however, it’s even more impressive when you consider Michigan’s defense.
The Huskers only had four hitting errors, the fewest since they had four hitting errors against Missouri State on Sept. 15, 2018.
During the non-conference schedule, Nebraska struggled with hitting errors as its outside hitter rotation was constantly change with three freshmen in the mix. All of the Huskers hitters made good choices against Michigan.
This game also marked the return of Husker three-time All-American Stivrins, who had an errorless performance with 11 kills, hit a match-high .733 and had three block assists.
A hitter is nothing without a good set. Setter Nicklin Hames had 39 assists, an average of 13 per set. Her setting percentage was .534, a direct reflection of Nebraska’s high hitting percentage.
.079
The Huskers backed up an explosive offensive performance with a defensive battle against Michigan State. The Spartans hit .079 as a team in the three-set match.
Entering the match, Michigan State’s Sarah Franklin led the Big Ten with an average of 5.80 kills per set.
Nebraska shut her down and limited her to five kills and six errors on 34 swings and hit -.029. Cook said he could tell she was getting frustrated during the match.
Libero Lexi Rodriguez played her best game since the Creighton match on Sept. 8 when she also had 17 digs. Keonilei Akana had 10 digs, Hames had nine and Kenzie Knuckles added seven.
In the Big Ten, Nebraska will likely be in offense and defensive battles depending on the opponent and the Huskers proved they could do both. Now, they have a chance to prove it against Penn State, one of the league’s best teams.
.077
Penn State ranks second in the Big Ten in opponent’s service aces with .077 per set.
Nebraska prides itself in tough serving and getting its opponents out-of-system. And statistically, the Nittany Lions struggle with receiving serves.
In the Huskers’ last two matches, they had nine aces against the Wolverines (five from Hames) and four aces versus the Spartans.
Cook said on Huskers Radio Network that Nebraska volleyball legend Jordan Larson said the U.S.A. Indoor Volleyball Olympics team had the best servers in the country which they had to defend against in practice. This made them better in service reception and helped them win the U.S.A.’s first Gold medal in indoor volleyball.
Cook said he challenged his players to be better servers to push each other in practice and put pressure on their opponents in games.
Nebraska has a great opportunity to control the game against Penn State by serving tough and getting good first passes.
Storylines:
Defending against the Big Ten’s best servers:
The Huskers have already faced two of the top three statistically best servers in the Big Ten and they combined for one ace.
The Wolverines’ May Pertofsky leads the Big Ten in service aces per set with .5. She didn’t have an ace against Nebraska. Pertofsky had two service errors during her seven attempts.
Biamba Kabengele, a Michigan State outside hitter, has the third-highest aces per set in the conference with .46. She had one ace and two errors against the Huskers in her 13 attempts.
Nebraska also limited Northwestern’s Temi Thomas-Ailara to no aces despite her averaging .37 aces per set, ranked No. 9 in the Big Ten.
The first battle is getting the serve up. Now the Huskers have to continue to improve on getting a good first pass right to Hames so she can set the best ball possible.
Nebraska has gotten increasingly better at passing serves. However, it will be a constant battle in the Big Ten, especially as the competition increases.
Different looking team
Before Nebraska started conference play 4-0, they lost three straight games to ranked opponents.
Cook said his team is better equipped to handle ranked opponents now as Penn State is on Friday. He said it was because the team is in more of a rhythm, everyone knows their roles and the freshmen are more comfortable.
Nebraska’s freshmen outside hitters Lindsay Krause, Ally Batenhorst and Whitney Lauenstein, and libero Lexi Rodriguez all started in the Huskers’ 3-1 loss to Stanford. Now as regular starters, Batenhorst and Krause each have four Big Ten games of experience to build upon.
As a unit, the Huskers look more in sync. Hames’s setting and decision-making has vastly improved from the beginning of the season when she had five outside hitters to work with inside of the main three now.
When asked which player has made the biggest jump in the last two weeks, Cook thought for a second and said Hames then listed Batenhorst, Krause, Kubik and Rodriguez.
“When your team takes a jump, it means pretty much everybody’s contributing to that,” Cook said.
Cook’s keys to victory:
On the Nebraska Volleyball show with John Cook and John Baylor on Sports Nightly, Cook gave his keys for success against Penn State.
“First of all we got freshmen we got to handle their crowd I’m sure it’ll be a big crowd,” he said. “So that’ll be one big test.”
Nebraska and Penn State bring out the best in each other and it is a respectful rivalry between the two volleyball teams, Cook said. Because of that and the top 15 ranked matchup, the Rec Hall will be loud.
Cook continued: “2, we can’t let Jonni Parker have a big night. Hord’s gonna get her kills no matter what we do.”
“I don’t know what outside (hitters) will play for them but they’re pretty physical so we’re gonna have to execute really well,” Cook said.
The return of the Stivrins’ Slide
Stivrins made her season debut against Michigan and just as Cook said, she dramatically changed Nebraska’s team.
Along with her extreme athleticism and talent, she brings leadership and energy to the floor. Nebraska’s offense hummed along better than it had all season with Stivrins in the lineup.
Hames said setting Stivrins again after her injury was like riding a bike and it showed. Stivrins didn’t have an error in her first match.
“The duo is back,” Hames said.
With Stivrins back on the floor, Kayla Caffey returned to her more natural middle blocker position in the rotation. Against the Wolverines, Caffey had eight kills, one error and hit .583. The senior also added four block assists, the most she had since the Stanford game.
Cook said Stivrins would be 105% when she returned because she had a chance to retrain her body and break out of old habits. Stivrins said she had time to focus on her blocking.
Her signature move, the Stivrins’ Slide, is stronger than ever. The Devaney Sports Center let her know how much they missed it on her first kill of the season as they rose to their feet in a standing ovation.
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