Freshman Laney Choboy has already become known for her fiery personality and energetic celebrations on the court, but she took it to another level during No.1 Nebraska’s comeback win over Wisconsin on Saturday.
Choboy said she and her teammates celebrated the victory for a couple days, but it was all business once they returned to the practice court.
“I think I was so emotional because I was just so proud of the way my team was fighting and the way we were battling back,” Choboy said. “We could have given up in the fourth set when they had game point but we decided to keep battling. Then in the fifth set I just had so much emotion because I was so happy for our team and I think that the next few days I was still on a high, but now we’re back in the gym trying to get ready for the rest of the season because it’s not over yet. We did have a big accomplishment, but we still have a lot of season left.”
Choboy said the team talked at the beginning of Tuesday’s practice about moving on and looking ahead. However, the Wisconsin match was more than win No. 19; it was a valuable learning experience for the young Huskers, providing some teaching tape that should serve the program well over the second half of the Big Ten.
“There’s a lot to learn from games like that, and especially on Saturday, that was one of the toughest games I’ve ever played in,” setter Bergen Reilly said. “There’s a lot to learn, mostly decision-making-wise with huge blockers up there all the time. There are a lot of decisions that have to go into that. And so learning a lot, but also kind of moving on. We have Rutgers and Maryland this weekend that we have to take seriously.”
Wisconsin recorded 12 stuff blocks in the second set alone, turning the tide of the match in the Badgers’ favor after Nebraska won the first set. Wisconsin is second in the Big Ten in blocks per set, but Nebraska’s next opponent in Maryland is third at 2.52 per set. The Huskers eventually found a way to combat the Wisconsin block as the match went on, an experience which should serve them well against the Terrapins and other big blocks Nebraska will face in the second half, including rematches with league-leader Penn State and the Badgers.
“You have to attack it,” Reilly said. “There’s really not much else you can do. They’re big and they’re going to get their big blocks but you can’t be scared of it. It’s just kind of trusting our offense and trusting our training and knowing that whatever happens over there, if they get a block, we move on and just keep going at it.”
Facing a big block is a challenge for more than just the hitters. In order for the pins and middles to have confidence taking big swings into the block, they have to know the back row will be there to cover for them if the ball comes right back to Nebraska’s side of the net.
“We go against a big block every day in practice, so our team is pretty good at covering,” Choboy said. “I know you probably couldn’t tell in the second set because we were struggling to cover, but we’re always going to be there and they know we’re going to be there, so it gives them the confidence to go take big swings. We work a lot on hitting high and stuff, but if you get blocked, we hope that our defense is there to cover.”
Maryland is 14-8 overall this season including 4-6 in Big Ten play. The Terps lost one of the best blockers in the country in Rainelle Jones from last year’s team, but freshman Eva Rohrbach has stepped up to fill the void and is averaging a team-best 1.18 blocks per set to go with 1.69 kills per set on .341 hitting. Senior Anastasia Russ, one the the team’s top returners at 6-foot-5, is contributing 1.14 blocks per set and 1.87 kills per set on .387 hitting offensively.
Senior Sam Csire is the team’s top pin, averaging 2.85 kills per set on .152 hitting. Maryland is hitting .222 overall (ninth in the Big Ten) with senior Sydney Dowler operating in a one-setter offense.
Nebraska will welcome Maryland to the Devaney Center Friday for its annual “Pink Match” sponsored by CHI Health, with first serve set for 7 p.m. CT.
Nebraska will then close out its three-match home stand on Saturday with the first of two matches against Rutgers in a 10-day span. The Scarlet Knights are 9-11 including 1-9 in Big Ten play, though the win came against a talented Minnesota team in four sets on Oct. 7. Alissa Kinkela, a 6-foot-4 sophomore pin, is leading the Scarlet Knights with 3.07 kills per set on .259 hitting. Rutgers is 11th in the Big Ten in offense (.209 hitting) and eighth in defense (.205 opponent hitting).
Kenzie Dyrstad, a freshman from Papillion-La Vista South, will play at the Devaney Center for the first time since helping the Titans win the Class A state championship last year. She’s played in every set this season with five starts at defensive specialist, averaging 1.2 digs per set with seven aces.
“They have some really good attackers and we just know that they’re going to get kills and we need to be ready for those kills,” Reilly said of the weekend’s competition. “We have the shots kind of down and so we’ve been working on that the last couple days. But like I said, just not overlooking any team just because we just beat Wisconsin; we realize that these are two teams that have had some big wins and we have to go out there and give them our best shot.”
First serve against Rutgers on Saturday has been pushed back to 7:30 p.m. to give a bigger cushion between the football and volleyball contests. Both matches will be streamed for subscribers on Big Ten Plus this weekend.
