Why Nebraska volleyball will start traveling with security

College volleyball gets started with two matches on Tuesday in Louisville, Kentucky.

And make no mistake, the AVCA First Serve Showcase benefits from Nebraska being there.

The Huskers are the defending champions of the Big Ten Conference and ranked No. 2 nationally. And Nebraska is TV ratings gold in the sport. Unofficially, eight of the 10 most-watched regular season matches last season included NU.

Nebraska’s match against No. 9 Kentucky is at 6 p.m. on ESPN2.

“Nebraska needs to be in there to help promote this thing — I’m sure we’ll get a lot of fans there,” Nebraska coach John Cook said. “It’s great exposure. We’re trying new things (like) what they did in the Olympics with no lines (judges), which I’ve been fighting for for years. The replay system is going to be faster. We’re trying to go where the game needs to go.”

Years ago, the AVCA (American Volleyball Coaches Association) hosted the AVCA Showcase in Omaha to start the season, but that went away.

This year, it’s held in Louisville where the NCAA Final Four will be played in December.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to showcase volleyball before (most college football teams start the season). That’s the key,” Cook said.

After the Nebraska-Kentucky match, No. 3 Wisconsin takes on No. 6 Louisville.

The AVCA got a waiver from the NCAA to play a few days earlier than the season was scheduled to begin.

The AVCA First Serve Showcase may include more teams next season, although Cook doesn’t know yet if Nebraska will be one of them.

A UNL police officer will be traveling with the team all season, which means there will be more security for the team at its hotel and near the bench during matches.

That’s something that’s common for college football teams. And Nebraska volleyball had already added more security near its bench and outside the locker room during home matches in recent years.

At times, the Wisconsin volleyball team has traveled with a police officer. And the Iowa women’s basketball team added extra security last season for Caitlin Clark.

Nebraska Athletic Director Troy Dannen made the decision.

“We’ve been mandated that we have to travel with police,” Cook said. “I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ But you saw what happened with Caitlin Clark, and what’s going on. You saw in (the ESPN documentary about Nebraska volleyball) some of the negative stuff that happens now in this day and age. The rules of the game have changed, and the pressure of expectations of a volleyball team have changed.”

Fans will be watching closely in the first part of the season to see who Nebraska’s top two outside hitters will be from the group of Lindsay Krause, Taylor Landfair, Harper Murray and Skyler Pierce.

The Nebraska coaches will also be studying statistics closely to see if Nebraska’s best modus operandi will be to sub out its pin hitters when they rotate to the back row in favor of more playing time for defensive specialists such as Laney Choboy and Olivia Mauch.

That limits the use of the back-row attack but could make the Huskers better in serve-receive and floor defense.

“It’s an interesting problem because we have some elite back-row people,” Cook said. “We got elite attackers. But you also have to get a rhythm into your team. It’s going to be a good developmental story. We’ll see how it goes. We haven’t decided, but we spend a lot of energy talking about it right now.”

One of the rules changes in college volleyball this season allows teams to use two liberos for each set of the match.

Cook doesn’t plan to utilize that — he wants three-time All-American Lexi Rodriguez in the match as much as possible — and expects teams at the NCAA Division II level to take advantage of the rule change more than Division I.

“I’m going to be shocked if I see any Big Ten teams doing it,” Cook said. “I think it’s hard enough to find one great libero, much less two. And I want our libero in there the whole time.”