Three Takes on Nebraska Volleyball’s sweep of Colgate

Nebraska volleyball opened the 2021 season with a sweep of Colgate in the Husker Invitational. Powered by a strong defense and a variety of hitters, NU breezed past Colgate to a 25-13, 25-16 and 25-11 victory.

Head coach John Cook said in a press conference on Monday that he was looking for to start the players with the most ‘edge’ during practices. On Friday night after the game, Cook said there was “team edge” on the court.

Here are three takes from Nebraska’s victory with some edge:

The first two sets were close toward the begin but NU kept fighting and each player contributed to wear out Colgate’s defense. The Raiders took some big hits in order to dig balls and yet, NU kept on coming back stronger with each swing.

Veterans like outside hitter Lexi Sun and middle blocker Callie Schwarzenbach stepped up and took control when the sets were close. Schwarzenbach had two kills including drilling an overpass to give NU a 13-8 led in the first set, Nebraska’s biggest of the first set, and causing a timeout. After the timeout, Sun scored three of the first four points.

Nebraska had seven hitters with at least three kills, the balance that Cook said he loves to see.

Schwarzenbach had a team-high 10 blocks, five kills and hit .400 with one error. Sun had a team-high 10 kills, earning her 1,000th career kill at Nebraska and becoming the nineth player to do so in the rally scoring era.

“That’s a really cool honor and privilege,” Sun said.

The Huskers pulled away from Colgate after they earned 10 points in the first two sets. Cook said he was glad to see they didn’t let up when the gap became larger.

In the third set, defensive specialist Keonilei Akana entered the game and served eight times in a row with two aces to give NU a 9-2 lead. Nebraska put their foot on the peddle at that point and never let up until Sun’s service ace gave them a 25-11 victory.

“The best six servers play and Keonilei came in and served rockets and that’s hard to do after sitting for two games,” Cook said.

The head coach said the serving, the team had four errors, was “pretty good for the first night.” He added that Saturday’s match against K-State will be more of a challenge because they will be serving more in longer sets.

With a team full of inexperienced players, it was important for them to learn early not to let up.

Nebraska had six freshman and two sophomore who played in the Devaney Sports Center with a game day crowd for the first time as Huskers on Friday. All six of the available players had a good first outing.

“Those guys get after it,” Cook said of his freshmen. “It’s like that every day in practice. They’re aggressive, they take swings, and they don’t back down. That’s what I’ve been seeing and it’s good to see it in a real game.”

Freshmen libero Lexi Rodriguez and outside hitter Lindsay Krause earned their first starts as Huskers. Krause hammered the first serve of her career for the first kill of her career. She finished the night with six kills, a .188 hitting percentage, eight digs and five blocks.

Cook said he was most impressed with Rodriguez’s ability to set the ball exactly were it needs to go. The libero six assists and 15 digs in his debut game.

Setter Kennedi Orr was featured in a 6-2 system on Friday night, where she mostly played the front row and sophomore Anni Evans set from the back row. Orr has a team-high 17 assists, one kill, 10 digs and two blocks. Evans had six assists and four digs.

At right outside hitter, Whitney Lauenstein had her time to shine as well. The 6-foot-2 Waverly native had three kills and three blocks.

Sophomore middle blocker Kalynn Meyer joined half way through the third set and earned three kills and a block.

Freshman outside hitter Ally Batenhorst is “a little bang up” according to Cook and didn’t play on Friday although, he said she “probably could have” and wanted too. Freshman middle blocker Rylee Gray was also unavailable.

With three-year starting setter Nicklin Hames out due to a right ankle injury, Nebraska played in a 6-2 system which has two setters. This way both Evans and Orr could get experience in both of their first games starting.

“They missed some sets, but they made some really nice sets,” Cook said. “I think for the first night it was good. It wasn’t great, it was good.

“Both those guys didn’t flinch. That was a good thing,” he added. “They were in control and running the show and didn’t look panicked at all.”

Running a 6-2 offense means there is less room for defensive players like Akana and recently named team captain Kenzie Knuckles. Knuckles served five times and had three digs.

“One of the problems with a 6-2 is we can’t get those guys in the game because we were already 12 subs in the second game so that’s the decision we got to make,” Cook said.

For a non-conference game without Hames, the 6-2 system worked fine for Nebraska’s situation however, the 5-1 with Hames at the helm is the system for them.

“Let’s hope Nicklin heals really fast,” Cook said.