No. 9 Nebraska volleyball is still kicking after a rough week of back-to-back losses to No. 3 Wisconsin and No. 11 Minnesota.
After defeating the Huskers in three sets, the Badgers lost 1-3 to No. 8 Purdue. Dropping Wisconsin to 10-2 in the Big Ten, just like Nebraska.
“Last I checked, we’re still on top of the Big Ten so we’ve got life and have got to find a way to win the two huge matches this week,” Nebraska Head Coach John Cook said on Monday.
The matches in question are at No. 25 Illinois on Thursday at 8 p.m. on BTN and No. 7 Ohio State in Columbus at 6 p.m. on Saturday on BTN Plus.
Here is a full breakdown of Nebraska’s challenge week ahead:
Scouting the opponent:
No. 25 Illinois (16-7, 8-4):
The last time Nebraska and Illinois met, the Huskers swept the Fighting Illini in Lincoln, giving Illinois its only sweep of the Big Ten season so far. Nebraska hit .267 compared to Illinois’s .100, their second-lowest of the season after hitting .056 against Wisconsin.
Illinois is ranked for the first time this season after beating then-No. 13 Penn State in State College 3-1 (20-25, 25-23, 27-25, 25-22) and Rutgers in five sets. Against the Nittany Lions, Raina Terry had 17 kills and Taylor Kuper had 19 digs.
The Fighting Illini are ranked No. 6 in the Big Ten but lead the league with 1.93 service aces per set. They have four players that serve over 0.30 aces per set. Nebraska has one in Nicklin Hames (0.35) and Keonilei Akana just outside with 0.29 aces per set.
No. 7 Ohio State (18-4, 8-4):
The Buckeyes are the No. 4 team in the Big Ten. The four teams they’ve lost to are Purdue (2-3), Penn State (0-3), Wisconsin (1-3) and Minnesota (1-3). Ohio State plays No. 11 Minnesota on Thursday before welcoming Nebraska to Columbus.
Ohio State leads the conference in five stats including assists per set (13.89), kills per set (14.91), opponent assists per set (10.01) and opponent kills per set (11.12) and opponent service aces per set (0.72). They rank second in opponent digs per set with 12.86.
The Buckeyes are coming off wins over Michigan and Michigan State and went 6-1 against the teams.
Players to watch:
Raina Terry, Illinois:
Outside hitter Raina Terry leads Illinois in kills with 289 on the season and averages 3.18 per set. She is hitting .141 this season but has been hitting .246 in her last six matches.
Terry also is third in the conference in service aces with 0.44 per set (40 aces total) and her teammate Taylor Kuper is eighth in the Big Ten. Terry has 185 digs, the fourth most on the team, and 49 blocks.
Against Nebraska, Terry struggled with seven kills and eight errors on 42 swings and hit -.024. But most of Illinois’s hitters struggled as they hit .100 as a team and Terry tied for a team-hit seven kills.
Kennedy Collins, Illinois:
Middle blocker Kennedy Collins is hitting .325, the highest on her team for players with over 100 kills. The 6-foot-3 junior had 217 kills and a team-high 101 blocks.
Against Nebraska, Collins tied Terry for a team-high seven kills with two errors and hit .385. Collins was one of the top performers for Illinois in a blowout match. The middle blocker had three block assists and a solo block.
Collins had her first double-double of the season in a five-set win against Rutgers with 13 kills while hitting .440 and 10 digs and eight blocks.
Emily Londot, Ohio State:
Outside hitter Emily Londot was named the AVCA 2020-21 National Freshman of the Year and a Second Team All-American as a freshman.
She is continuing on an impressive freshman campaign by leading the Buckeyes with 256 kills. The 6-foot-3 hitter ranks No. 7 in the Big Ten with 3.66 kills per set and 4.33 points per set. Londot is hitting .222 on the season with 155 digs and 70 blocks.
Mac Podraza, Ohio State:
Setter Mac Podraza runs the Buckeye’s offense and has been named the Big Ten Co-Setter of the Week twice this season. Most recently after her performances against Michigan and Michigan State.
At Michigan, Podraza had 41 assists, seven digs and two blocks. She had 42 assists against the Spartans with 15 digs and three blocks.
Podraza is second in the Big Ten with 11.88 assists per set behind Wisconsin’s Sydney Hilley’s 12.11. This season, the 6-foot-2 setter has 891 assists, 45 kills, 199 digs and 60 blocks.
Gabby Gonzales, Ohio State:
Outside hitter Gabby Gonzales is coming off her best game of the season which was in Ohio States’ 3-1 win over Michigan State. Gonzales had 22 kills, eight errors and hit .255. She also added nine digs and two blocks.
The Junior has 255 kills, about even with Londot, and contributes 3.40 kills per set. Gonzales is the most targeted hitting for the Buckeyes’ offense and hits .249. She also has 190 digs and 33 blocks.
Other notable players for Ohio State:
* Rylee Rader – 6-2 sophomore middle blocker:
– No. 2 in Big Ten with .465 hitting percentage
* Arica Davis – 5-11 freshman middle blocker:
– Three-time Big Ten Freshman of the Week honoree
– No. 7 in Big Ten with .385 hitting percentage
– No. 6 in Big Ten with 1.30 blocks per set
Stat Attack:
107:
Minnesota had 107 digs in their five-set victory over the Huskers on Saturday. Like the Gophers, Nebraska had a season-high number of digs with 97. In fact, Nebraska and Minnesota each recorded the No. 1 and No. 2 number of digs in the Big Ten match this season.
With such a high number of digs and low hitting percentages, there were a lot of long rallies. Nebraska was forced to adjust to really long rallies against Wisconsin and worked harder on that skill against the Gophers.
The Huskers need to improve on finding ways to set and kill balls when they’re out-of-system which happens often in long rallies. Nebraska’s remaining schedule has the best team’s in the league and there will be many, many more long rallies.
Cook said on Monday that the Huskers need to convert the digs into kills. Nebraska had 68 kills and 97 digs against Minnesota and 42 kills and 60 digs versus Wisconsin.
20:
Nebraska had 12 service errors against Minnesota and allowed eight aces including the game-winning point on an ace from Stephanie Samedy, the AVCA Player of the Week.
That’s 20 points determined at the service line.
“That’s what we talk about a lot is that if we can thump the ball and we can get them out of system, we will win this ballgame,” outside hitter Madi Kubik said. “We’ve been putting a lot of pressure on it for it to be successful and really carry us for a lot of different areas.”
Kubik said the team is working on trusting their training and process to make a difference from the service line but with fewer errors.
Storylines:
Two-point sets:
Nebraska lost two games by two against Wisconsin and won two games by two against Minnesota to send it to a fifth set. Cook said that’s an area his team needs to improve on.
“That’s where it’s gonna be the rest of the year, there’s going to be a lot of close games, we just have to find a way to win those,” Cook said.
Eliminating some of the careless errors like serving into the net or not making a smart hitting decision during a set, especially towards the end, could be the difference.
Nebraska had three attack errors, three services errors and two reception errors in the fifth set. Nine points in a set where the first to 15 wins the match. Three of those errors happened in the last four points.
These won’t be the Huskers’ last two-point or deuce games of the season.
“That’s life in the Big Ten you’ve got to be on top of your game and win close games to win matches,” he said. “It’s just the way it is. It’s hard to do every week. That’s the challenge.”
Nebraska is No. 6 in Volleyball Committee Top 10 rankings:
The Division I Women’s Volleyball Committee released its Top 10 rankings on Sunday, Oct. 31 on matches through Wednesday, Oct. 27. The Huskers come in at No.6 and will three of the top 10 opponents on their schedule. Nebraska already lost to No. 1 Louisville and No. 3 Wisconsin this season. No. 7 Ohio State is the other opponent.
Here is the full Top 10 list:
– No. 1 Louisville
– No. 2 Texas
– No. 3 Wisconsin
– No. 4 Pittsburgh
– No. 5 Kentucky
– No. 6 Nebraska
– No. 7 Ohio State
– No. 8 Baylor
– No. 9 Georgia Tech
– No. 10 UCLA
Nebraska State Volleyball tournament featuring two Huskers:
The Nebraska State Volleyball tournament is underway in Lincoln as Pinnacle Bank Arena and the Devaney Center host 42 matches in four days.
Two Husker volleyball commits are competing for a Class B title. Top-seed Norris’s setter Maisie Boesiger is a walk-on commit and led the Titans to a sweep over No. 8 Adams Central. Boesiger had 31 assists, 12 digs and four aces.
No. 3 Waverly features 6-foot-3 middle blocker commit Bekka Allick who had 23 kills and 17 digs to defeat No. 6 Grand Island. Allick will be joining Waverly alumni Lauenstein and Anni Evans as Vikings turned Huskers.
Norris plays No. 5 Elkhorn North at 5 p.m. on Friday on the North Court at PBA. Waverly plays in the following match at 7 p.m. against No. 2 Skutt, six-time defending champions. Current Husker Lindsay Krause led Skutt to four of those consecutive titles.
The tournament is guaranteed to have great matches and features players who will continue to play volleyball at a high level after high school. For example, Purdue commit Grace Heaney at Elkhorn North, UCF commit Abigail Schomer at Skutt, Missouri commit Estella Zatechka at Elkhorn South, Creighton commit Skylar McCune at Gretna and dozens of other athletes.
The Championship matches will run from 9 a.m. to the Class A game starting at 7 p.m. and will play on NET. For more information, check out NSAAhome.org.
Second left-side hitter:
This part is starting to remind me of covering Nebraska football… writing the same thing over and over again and not seeing improvement.
The Husker volleyball team has a serious issue with getting production out of its second left-side hitter. Freshman Ally Batenhorst has started all 12 of the Big Ten matches and is hitting .132 on the season. Batenhorst has hit zero and negative in her last six games.
After Batenhorst hit zero in the first set against Minnesota, Lexi Sun played the remaining four games. Sun had 12 kills, seven errors and hit .116, still not much better.
Cook said someone needs to take that position and make it theirs. He also said it is up for grabs every week.
“We’re hitting on five cylinders,” he said. “We need to hit on six.”
Cook said he might give freshman Whitney Lauenstein a shot. Lauenstein played often at the opposite side at the beginning of the season when Nebraska was searching for its lineup. She hit .178 in the nine matches she played in.
Lauenstein’s best games were against Arizona State when she had 11 kills and hit .529. She had eight kills and hit .429 versus Georgia and added two blocks to both matches.
Krause beat Lauenstein out this season on the right pin but Lauenstein could potentially get her shot at the left side.
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