Nebraska Volleyball has nothing to be ashamed of after magical run

Nebraska volleyball lost their final match of the season, dropping the National Championship match to Stanford in five sets. Despite the loss, the Huskers shouldn’t be down on themselves at all.

The 2018 season is over for Nebraska volleyball, but they didn’t go away quietly. The Huskers battled hard against the one-seeded Stanford Cardinal, forcing the National Championship match to go five sets.

While Nebraska lost the match, there’s still so much to be proud of with this team. First and foremost, let’s talk about the fact that the Huskers went five sets with Stanford.

If we’re being honest, most would have admitted that Stanford was the better team before the match. They were the one-seed. They had the size advantage. They demolished BYU’s hopes and dreams the match prior. There’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that the Cardinal were a formidable opponent.

Despite all of that, Nebraska took them to five sets. After getting blown out in the third set, Nebraska turned around and did the same thing to Stanford in set four. That’s where a second straight title seemed very realistic because Nebraska looked like the better team after four sets.

Another reason to be proud of this 2018 Nebraska volleyball squad is that this was supposed to be a down year for the Huskers. Losing seven players from a season ago and gaining eight new faces meant that Nebraska had their work cut out for them this year.

If losing in the National Championship is considered a down year, then I think every single Nebraska fan will take that easily.

Lastly, the newcomers I mentioned earlier showed so much growth this season. The Huskers had lost four key players from last year’s National Championship team and replaced them with a transfer and three freshmen. That’s going to result in some growing pains, but all four of those additions showed great improvements as the season progressed.

Nicklin Hames had the toughest task of all of them. It’s not easy being a freshman setter in the toughest conference in the sport, but Hames handled it like a pro. She looked so good during the tournament and just think about this, Husker fans… She’s already this good and she’s the setter at Nebraska for three more years.

So, what’s next for Nebraska volleyball now that the season has come to a close?

Well, the hardest hit to the Huskers will be Kenzie Maloney and Mikaela Foecke graduating. Those two mean so much to this program and replacing them won’t be an easy task at all.

The good news about this group being so young is that the next two seasons will basically be the same team. Lauren Stivrins, Lexi Sun, and Jazz Sweet will be juniors while Nicklin Hames, Megan Miller, and Callie Schwarzenbach will only be sophomores. There’s next year’s starting lineup right there, maybe mixed in with Capri Davis (sophomore in 2019) or a newcomer getting in there as well.

There obviously could be players transferring in and out of the program, but otherwise, there won’t be a lot of change with the Huskers these next few years. Nebraska signed five players (including three high school All-Americans) last month to join them in 2019 and beyond so it’ll be fun to see what those young players provide moving forward.

Losing a National Championship sucks, especially when the Cornhuskers were oh so close, but there isn’t one thing this team should beat themselves up over. They well exceeded our expectations this year and to think we’ll have nearly the entire team returning in 2019 and 2020 is really exciting!

The future continues to stay bright for Nebraska volleyball even with the loss in the title game. That’s just extra motivation for these young players next year, so let’s hope it pays off!

Go Big Red!