Nebraska Cornhusker Sand Volleyball 2015
By Brent Craig
In 2016 College Sand Volleyball will become an official NCAA sport and will have a championship game to decide the National Champion. Until then, this season will be similar to last years season with teams playing in different tournaments across the country, without a true champion being crowned.
Collegiate sand volleyball officially began play during the 2011-2012 school year, but Nebraska didn’t add sand volleyball until 2013. In that inaugural season the Huskers were preseason ranked 9th; in 2014 the Huskers were preseason ranked 10th; and this season the Huskers are preseason ranked 17th by Dig Magazine.
Courtesy: NU Media Relations
The Huskers will need to play some of their best volleyball to stay ranked and move up in the polls at they will play against preseason ranked number three University of Southern California, number four Hawaii and number sixteen Arizona. Last season the Huskers were swept by USC and Hawaii but did manage to beat Arizona 3-2. Check out the Husker Sand Volleyball schedule here.
This season the Huskers will play tournaments in Hawaii and Arizona but unfortunately all of the Huskers players will not be able to attend. The Huskers can only take eleven girls so three will have to stay home, but which three will it be? Two that will most likely be going are the duo of sophomore’s Justine Wong-Orantes and Melanie Keil. They ended the season as Nebraska’s number one duo and in the Chaminade Hawaii Invitational, where there was no team scoring, the dynamic due of Wong-Orantes/Keil actually defeated Husker sophomore’s Amber Rolfzen and Kira Larson for the tournament championship. It is hard to say who will be staying and who will be going, but the Nebraska coaches may not have even made that final decision yet. It seems though that the younger players performed better last year than the older players, if that has any relevance at all.
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Week two of practice is in the books. Sand Volleyball tournaments for the Huskers begins March 20th at Queens Beach at Waikiki and end on March 29th at Phoenix, Arizona. It will be a quick season but a lot of fun for the 11 girls who get to participate as well as a motivator for the girls who will not get to compete for next season. It appears though that LSU transfer Briana Holman will not be granted release from her scholarship by LSU so the Husker fans will just need to wait until next season. Until then, we shall wish the Husker girls much success this sand volleyball season and wish we were with them in Hawaii cheering them on, chanting “Go Big Red!”