Husker Sand Volleyball Team Leaves Their Mark in Hawaii

If you missed any news of the Husker Sand Volleyball action or missed watching them play on OCSports.tv, then you missed out on some well improved Husker play. The Huskers volleyball team traveled to Honolulu, Hawaii for some fun in the sun and some tough games against tough opponents playing teams like USC, Cal, and Hawaii. The Huskers ended their time in Honolulu with an exciting match-up between Hawaii’s number one due and Nebraska’s number one duo that beautiful Sunday evening with temperatures in the mid 70’s. Excitement was in the ocean air going into the last match of the evening, 19th ranked Nebraska was tied with the #1 ranked Hawaii, 2 games apiece. The winner of the final match would determine which team was the victor.

But before we get into just how the Huskers did, lets first take a look at this fairly new collegiate sport and get some of the facts and lingo down, a little Sand Volleyball 101, then we can call ourselves knowledgeable fans. First off, each school has 5 doubles teams and each schools doubles team is ranked 1-5 based on each duo’s ability. In competition, each duo plays their opponents equally ranked duo and each doubles match victory earns 1 point, and three points are needed to win the match. Each of the doubles matches are best 2 out of 3 sets and the scoring is rally score to 21, with set 3 to 15, and like hard court ball, a duo must win by 2 points. Teams will switch sides every time 7 total points are scored, except in set three when it is every 5 points. The court dimensions are as follows: 52’6″ long by 26’3″ wide and has a free zone that surrounds the court at 9’10”. And the sand is at least 15″ deep minimum.

And what about the Lingo of Sand Volleyball? Just how different is it compared to what the Huskers are used to on the hard court?

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• “Cutee” – these are attack shots that travel over the net at an extreme angle
• “Husband & Wife” – when the ball drops on to the court in between the two players causing confusion.
• “Nobody” – when there is no blocker up at the net
• “Poke” – when the ball is contacted by the players knuckles
• “Six Pack” – when a player gets hit in the face by a hard spike-Ouch

As you can see, this isn’t your mother’s and father’s volleyball lingo. Welcome to collegiate sand volleyball!

You can see the results for the Husker matches from Thursday March 19th here. But let’s get to the results from Friday, Saturday and Sunday to see how the Husker fared in the first part of the their 9 day season, which is shorter than the schools that have full fledged sand volleyball teams. Here is some of the action from the Queen of the Beach Challenge!

Huskers Wong-Orantes and Ostrander win Silver Bracket Title!

Husker Alexa Ethridge gets the Best Defense Award at Queen of the Beach Challenge!

On Sunday March 22, The Huskers faced Cal and Hawaii at the Ching Complex. First up, the Huskers swept Cal 5-0. Hawaii also swept Cal 5-0 setting up a big match-up between #19 Nebraska and #1 Hawaii. Huskers #5 and #4 duos defeated Hawaii with Huskers taking 2-0 lead!

The Huskers #3 and #2 duos fall to Hawaii setting up a big match-up between Nebraska’s and Hawaii’s #1 duos. Hawaii took the first set 21-14. The second set was more exciting as the set was tied 12 times and the Husker served two match points but it was Hawaii who would come away with the win 23-21 in a tough fought match.

We know Coach Cook is a very proud coach, and so are Husker fans across the nation. Huskers head to Arizona with matches beginning March 25. Way to go Girls; way to go Coaches, and Go Big Red!