No. 2 Nebraska volleyball will open the 2024 season in Louisville, Kentucky, on Tuesday night, though the Huskers will be taking on the Wildcats of Kentucky rather than the Cardinals at the KFC Yum! Center.
The match, set for 6 p.m. CT on ESPN 2, is part of the AVCA First Serve Showcase and will be the first of three trips to the Bluegrass State for the Huskers if the season goes according to plan. Nebraska will play at Louisville in the nonconference finale on Sept. 22, and the Final Four will take place in Louisville as well this season.
Coach John Cook explained after the Red-White Scrimmage on Saturday why “Race for the Roses” is this year’s theme.
“It’s simple. The Final Four’s in Louisville; that’s where Churchill Downs is,” Cook said. “They run horses there. I like horses. So we’re going to race for the roses. We’re trying to win the Kentucky Derby.”
No. 6 Louisville will host No. 3 Wisconsin in the second part of the First Serve Showcase double-header, the official start of the Division I season. Cook said Nebraska has participated in the event in the past and he jumped at the opportunity this season for multiple reasons.
“I think Nebraska needs to be in there to help promote this thing,” Cook said. “I’m sure we’ll get a lot of fans there and it’s great exposure. We’re trying new things: what they do in the Olympics with the no lines people, which I’ve been fighting for for years, the replay system, timeouts are going to be faster, all those things. So we’re trying to go where the game needs to go, which is everything’s going faster. The challenge system’s better, and the timeouts are shorter … There’ll be an eight-second serve clock, so that’ll be new.
“So anyway, it’s just going to where the game is internationally, and where it is in the Olympics and how they are running it. So I wanted to be a part of that, and have Nebraska help promote that and be a part of that. It’s also in Louisville where the Final Four is going to be.”
Cook said the invitation came after the huskers had already set their schedule, making for a busy opening week with the Red-White Scrimmage, the First Serve Showcase and the Ameritas Players Challenge featuring matches against Texas A&M Corpus Christi and TCU all in the span of eight days.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to showcase volleyball before football starts, so I think that’s the key,” Cook said.
The head coach offered his assessment of the team following the White team’s 3-1 win over the Red in the annual preseason scrimmage at the Devaney Center on Saturday.
“I want us to play better, but the Red-White is always a struggle because they’re playing against each other, the crowd doesn’t know who to cheer for, and so it just feels weird out there,” Cook said. “We’ve got a lot to work on, though, and this was a great teaching night for us, because when they didn’t do what they needed to do, they paid for it. That’s what was the best thing tonight, is they paid for it. They didn’t use a good technique, they didn’t call their set, all those little things that matter, when they didn’t do it, they paid for it tonight.”
While Saturday was valuable, particularly for the newcomers, captain Lexi Rodriguez said the Huskers are ready to take on somebody else after months of competing against each other.
“I think tonight can definitely be a confidence booster for everyone, just to get a game under their belt, especially for the transfers, the freshmen, and it’s not like we’re just playing a scrimmage game,” Rodriguez said. “It feels like a real match and for how competitive our gym is, it feels like a very high-level match. And so I feel like getting that under our belt, and then just getting to recover and head out to Kentucky, and I honestly feel like we’re very ready to play someone else. As much as we love playing each other, I think we’re ready to just be one team and kind of take down other teams. So I think that’ll give us a lot of motivation.”
Saturday was the end of the preseason for the Huskers, and Cook said his immediate focus for the 24 hours following the scrimmage was settling on a lineup and rotation. Cook experimented with different lineups throughout the Red-White Scrimmage and has no shortage of talented options at every position. Outside hitter and middle blocker seem to be the positions most up in the air, though Cook also has to decide how to use incorporate defensive specialists.
“We don’t have much practice time, so just getting a lineup so these guys just know, ‘OK, you’re out there, you’re going,’” Cook said. “That’s the next 24 hours. So getting that and then just pumping them up and let’s turn them loose.”
The Wildcats were picked third in the preseason SEC coaches poll after winning the conference title with a 17-1 league record a year ago. Kentucky finished 21-8 overall with two losses coming in Lincoln (a four-set nonconference match against Nebraska and a five-set showdown against Kentucky in the regional semifinal at the Devaney Center). Nebraska has won 10 in a row in the series.
Second-team All-America setter Emma Grome returns after leading the nation with 12.10 assists per set in 2023. Brooklyn DeLeye, a 6-foot-2 outside hitter, is back as Grome’s favorite target, leading the Wildcats with 3.69 kills per set on .287 hitting to earn SEC Freshman of the Year. Libero Eleanor Beavin was Kentucky’s third preseason All-SEC pick after averaging 4.09 digs per set as a junior.
Eric Frede, Holly McPeak and Katie George will call the match for ESPN2.
