Part three of the Big Ten trilogy is set: top-seeded Nebraska volleyball will face No. 2 Wisconsin Sunday afternoon, with a trip to the Final Four on the line.
“This is what ABC wanted,” Coach John Cook said. “This is what everybody wanted, what the NCAA Tournament wanted, was us and Wisconsin. Now they’ve got it. The Huskers will be fired up.”
Nebraska (32-2) beat No. 5 Dayton in four sets late on Friday night after the Badgers outlasted No. 6 Texas A&M in five in the first Lincoln Regional semifinal, setting the stage for round three between the conference rivals at the Devaney Center.
The Huskers won each of the first two meetings 3-0, snapping their long losing streak at the UW Field House in early November before repeating the feet at home three weeks later on senior night. Cook said Nebraska’s approach is to look at each match individually without consideration for what may have happened in the past, though Bergen Reilly said it does help on a quick turnaround having some familiarity with a team as they begin diving into the scout.
“We have their tendencies in our head and we kind of know a little bit about what’s coming,” Reilly said. “Each game, they’ve made little changes, so we have to adjust to those too. Having this day in between will be really good for us to refresh on that and get back used to it. It definitely helps that we already have a scouting report in our head and don’t have to start from scratch.”
The scouting report starts with Sarah Franklin, the two-time Big Ten Player of the Year who is averaging 4.47 kills per set on .294 hitting and 2.26 digs per set. The 6-foot-4 outside hitter put up 21 kills against Texas A&M on Friday night.
Franklin has plenty of support around her as well. Anna Smrek, the 6-foot-9 senior opposite hitter who gave Nebraska fits in the national championship as a freshman, is averaging 2.84 kills per set on .313 hitting and 1.31 blocks per set. Carter Booth, a 6-foot-7 junior middle blocker, nearly recorded a double-double with 14 kills and nine blocks against the Aggies and is leading the team with 1.36 blocks per set. Freshman libero Lola Schumacher (3.67 digs per set) and junior defensive specialist Gulce Guctekin (2.08 digs per set) are back for the Badgers after missing the previous meeting in Lincoln.
Wisconsin (26-6) is eighth in the country in hitting percentage at .291, narrowly ahead of ninth-place Nebraska (.288). The Badgers also lead the country in blocking at 3.08 per set.
“It’s exciting,” Andi Jackson said. “I think they’re a really good program and a great team and getting to play such high level volleyball is super exciting for our team. I know that we really enjoy that. Preparing for it, it’s more just, go out and take it. We have nothing to lose. At the end of the day, it’s just another volleyball game. It’s volleyball versus volleyball. It’s not us versus Wisconsin.”
Nebraska’s offense has been somewhat up and down, with the Huskers’ hitting percentage dropping with each successive round as the competition gets tougher (from .391 to .293 to .216). However, Nebraska has won nine of its 10 postseason sets on the back of its defense. All three opponents have failed to crack .100 against the Huskers, who have allowed just 87 kills and forced 72 errors this postseason.
Three of Nebraska’s five primary attackers have struggled at different points so far in the tournament, but others have picked up the slack — and the defense has been the constant.
“That’s why they call it a team,” Cook said. “Not everybody is going to be an All-American all-star every night. Our goal is to be a great team every night. We can win with somebody getting hot, we can win with our block and defense. We don’t have to be perfect every night. That’s one of the great things about this team. We’ve won a lot of different ways. Our goal tomorrow will be to have everybody play their best match of the year and our crowd to have their best match of the year.”
The one Husker attacker who has played like an All-American all tournament is Harper Murray. She led the team in kills during the regular season and has stepped it up even more in the postseason, averaging 4.3 kills per set on .372 hitting, including a match-high 22 kills against Dayton on Friday. To advance to the Final Four, Nebraska will likely need another big match from its sophomore star.
“I like to set the hot hand,” Reilly said. “This season, luckily, we’ve had a lot of hot hands pretty much every game. It’s been easy to balance. She was on fire last night and finding her as much as you can is really all you can do, while also trying to keep everybody else in it and not let the block just go to her. It’s a balance of wanting to feed her a lot but also keeping the other team honest and keeping the rest of our team in it and running a normal offense, too.”
Win or lose, Sunday will be the final appearance for Lexi Rodriguez and the rest of the senior class at the Devaney Center. Cook said again he didn’t even want to think about that fact, but Jackson said she’s using it as added motivation against the Badgers.
“I’m very motivated,” Jackson said. “It’s going to be a really fun game, a super fun environment. It’s the last game in the Bob for our seniors and Bergen and my sophomore year. Time is flying, so I want to absorb it and absorb the moment and play our best match of the year, to an extent.”
First serve is set for 2 p.m. CT on ABC with Courtney Lyle, Holly McPeak, Katie George and Madison Fitzpatrick on the call.
