The reward for a great season in Division I volleyball is the chance to begin the postseason journey at home. That’s what Nebraska volleyball earned with its 29-2 record and Big Ten title share, and it’s something the Huskers have enjoyed heading into Friday’s first-round match with Florida A&M.
“The great thing is, when you’re at home, we get to stay in our rhythm,” Coach John Cook said. “This was a normal week for us, like playing a Big Ten week that we’re playing on a Friday-Saturday, which we had a couple of those. So we’re prepared for this, we know what it is, we know what it’s like to go back-to-back.
“For us, that’s the beautiful thing about being at home. You’re hearing stories about all these charter problems and airline problems. Matches already started today; just think about those teams trying to get to that school and play today. So it’s routine for us, which we love routine.”
The Huskers had to lock back into their routine after suffering a loss for just the second time this season last weekend. Bergen Reilly said the Huskers learned a lot about themselves from the four-set loss at Penn State last Friday and received one final reminder of what it’ll take for them to make a deep run in the tournament.
“There are always going to be things we can get better at, and I think that we kind of went on a streak there where we weren’t losing a lot of sets, didn’t lose games for however many games it was,” Reilly said. “And so I think it was just kind of a reminder to ourselves to come in every single day, work every day, and that we’re not invincible and we’re going to have to work really hard. There are a lot of good teams this year, so I think it was good for us. I think that we needed a little gut check, and I think that it’ll kind of propel us forward in the tournament.”
With the regular season complete, Nebraska is 11th nationally in hitting percentage (.288), eighth in opponent hitting percentage (.148), 11th in kills per set (14.20) and 13th in blocks per set (2.75). The Huskers have also allowed the fewest aces of any team in the high-major conferences at least, if not the country.
Overall No. 1 seed Pitt (29-1), No. 2 seed Creighton (29-2) and No. 4 seed Dayton — who beat South Carolina 3-1 on Thursday to improve to 30-2 — are the only teams who rank top-10 in both offense and defense, but the Huskers aren’t far off.
“This team is playing at the highest level of any team I’ve coached statistically, and our competition is better than it’s ever been,” Cook said. “This group’s shown that they can play at a really high level, and it’s in every area of how we evaluate and take stats. They’ve done a tremendous job. You look at our serving, passing, we’re number one in the Big Ten in opponent efficiency. I explained to them, let’s say you’re in the SWAC conference; it might be pretty easy to have a great defensive team there. Look who we’re going against. We’re going against first-team All-Americans almost every week, and every night, All-Americans, and to do that is really, really tough.
“We went through a Big Ten season and up until the last weekend we only lost five sets, which if you told me that the beginning of the year I would say, ‘No way.’ I was saying we’d have to have the team of the century to go undefeated. So they’ve proven it, and now it’s a new season, but everybody’s 0-0 and the game forgets, and we’ve got to go out and prove it every night, every point.”
Last year, Nebraska made it to the national championship match despite not having a single senior on the roster. This week, Cook said the team has taken a similar approach to preparation as last year’s, though he has sensed an extra edge with his group of returners.
“Last year was almost like a magical ride, a Cinderella story,” said Reilly, one of four Huskers who filled a key role for that team as a freshman. “We had all these young girls, whatever, so we didn’t really know what to expect. This year we’re kind of coming back, and we’re trying not to necessarily compare it to last year, but we also have an edge from last year, and we know that we didn’t finish the season on top like we wanted to. I’d say there’s definitely just a little bit of that, like we want to get back to the national championship and we want to have a different outcome this year, but also not necessarily letting last year get to us either.”
Jackson said her advice to the Nebraska volleyball newcomers — transfers Taylor Landfair and Andi Jackson and freshmen Olivia Mauch and Skyler Pierce — is simply to have fun. Jackson said some of the Huskers might have let the pressure get to them a bit last year and obscure the fact that the tournament is the most exciting part of the season. For the sophomore middle blocker, sending the five seniors out with a bang is what’s driving her.
The first team that stands in their way is Florida A&M (27-6), the SWAC regular season and tournament champions. The Rattlers are a strong defensive team, ranked sixth nationally in opponent hitting percentage at .142 (narrowly ahead of Nebraska and another No. 1 seed in Louisville).
“They’ve got athletes,” Cook said. “Their coach is from Turkey, so they play an international, kind of, style of volleyball. They set one player really, really fast, probably the fastest tempo we’ve seen all year, a left side hitter. They’re running a 6-2, which a lot of teams do, and they run players all over, so they’re probably not as refined as a lot of the Big Ten teams because they’re running all these patterns and everything. But to do that, you’ve got to pass, so the key for us will be can we serve them and get them out of system all the time and take all that away?
They do some nice things. They’ve got athletes. Merritt [Beason] has already played them a couple times, so they’re very consistent being in the NCAA Tournament. And they have a very cool nickname, the Rattlers, and we’re 0-1 against them. They [Reilly and Jackson] weren’t born yet, but for me, this is payback.”
Brooke Lynn Watts, a 5-foot-9 senior pin, lead the Rattlers’ attack at 3.65 kills per set on .248 hitting while adding 2.55 digs per set. Senior Alexandra Koleva (7.13 assists per set) and freshman Makenzie Taylor (5.06) split the setting duties. Freshman libero Tinons Galmés is averaging 4.29 digs per set to lead the defense.
First serve on Friday at the Devaney Center is set for 7 p.m. CT, or 30 minutes after the completion of the first match which will pit No. 8 Miami against South Dakota State.
The Hurricanes are 21-10 and have wins over Stanford and Texas. Miami features a pair of prolific pins in junior Flormarie Heredia Colon (4.3 kills per set on .248 hitting) and sophomore Grace Lopez (3.54 kills per set on .260 hitting).
The Jackrabbits (27-2) qualified as an at-large team after falling in five sets to South Dakota in the Summit League Tournament championship.
South Dakota State has one Nebraska native on its roster in senior middle blocker Annalee Ventling-Brown, a Lincoln East alumna who has played in 27 matches this season with two starts.
Sophomore outside hitter Sylvie Zgonc lead the team with 4.41 kills per set on .249 hitting and 2.98 digs per set. Junior middle blocker Sydni Schetnan adds 2.50 kills per set on .394 hitting and a team-best 1.28 blocks per set.
Reilly, a native of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has three former club teammates playing for the Jackrabbits and is happy to see them visit Lincoln.
“It’s really cool,” Reilly said. “I hung out with a couple of them last night. They’re really excited to be here. It’s just kind of cool to see how excited people get to even just practice in Devaney. They were so excited for practice today because they got to be in Bob. It just kind of reminds me how special it is here and how good we have it. But I’m excited for them. They’ve had a really great season, so I think they can make some waves.”
The Jackrabbits and Hurricanes will get the party started at the Devaney Center on Friday at 4:30 p.m. CT. Both matches will be available to stream on ESPN+.
