Nebraska Volleyball: Rematch with Stanford more than just revenge

We’re seven games into the 2019 season for Nebraska volleyball and this Wednesday’s match against Stanford is one we’ve all been eagerly awaiting since the schedule was announced.

Wednesday night is a big one for Nebraska volleyball, as it’s the rematch of the 2019 National Championship where the Huskers lost in five sets to the Stanford Cardinal. It was a back and forth match, but ultimately, Stanford made fewer mistakes and were the better team in the 2018 season, no matter how Nebraska fans want to spin it.

After the Huskers had lost, however, a photo surfaced of Stanford’s locker room where the Cardinal team had drawn some disturbing images on their white board involving Nebraska’s mascot. This added salt to the wound and even though not much was said on the issue, it’d be crazy not to think that isn’t in the back of Nebraska’s mind for Wednesday’s match.

This might be a non-conference game, but it’s a HUGE match for Nebraska volleyball. They’re currently 7-0 on the season and recently got bumped up to number one in the country after the previous number one team – Stanford, who just happens to be Wednesday’s opponent – lost to Minnesota over the weekend, snapping their undefeated streak at 37 games.

Wednesday’s match is a revenge match for Nebraska, who gets a chance to beat the team that handed them their first loss in the National Championship since the 2005 season. As if that didn’t raise the stakes high enough, now the Huskers are fighting to remain the number one team in the country and making sure Stanford doesn’t leapfrog them.

So far, Nebraska is undefeated on the year, having beaten Creighton (#18), UCLA, Arizona, San Diego (#25), High Point, Denver and Loyola Marymount. The match against Stanford will undoubtedly be the Huskers’ toughest match during the entire regular season, but fortunately it’ll be in Lincoln in the confines of the Devaney Center. It’ll be the #1 Huskers against the #2 Cardinal and you just know the Big Red faithful will be rocking at the Devaney!

HUSKERS TO WATCH

• Lauren Stivrins – The junior middle blocker is hitting .311 and when she gets going, it’s tough to slow her down on the court. Nebraska will need her to be elite against the Cardinal.
• Nicklin Hames – The sophomore setter has 259 assists thus far and the Huskers need her to lead the offense well on Wednesday in order to take down Stanford.
• Kenzie Knuckles – The freshman libero will have her work cut out for her Wednesday, but she’s posted 106 digs through seven matches already. Defense has always been key for the Cornhuskers, but it’ll be especially important against a complete team like Stanford.

CARDINAL TO WATCH

• Kathryn Plummer – It feels like Plummer has been at Stanford forever, but somehow she’s finally a senior. She’s hitting .350 with 121 kills and her kills double anyone else’s on the team. She’s averaging 5.77 points per set.
• Morgan Hentz – With 104 digs, the senior libero is a freak of nature on the court and getting a ball past her is tough. It’s saying something when Kenzie Maloney wasn’t the best libero on the court in last year’s National Championship match. That honor went to Hentz.
• Audriana Fitzmorris – She’s hitting .319 in six matches this year and is Stanford’s second most lethal hitter after Plummer.

*Stanford stats courtesy of their official athletics website*

A huge reason as to why Stanford has seen the amount of success they have in recent years is because these players all came in around the same time and played together/bonded for four years. Now, the majority of them are heading into their senior year and that means they’ll be motivated to go out on top.

It honestly wouldn’t shock me if Wednesday night’s match is once again the match-up we see in the 2019 National Championship. Hopefully if that ends up happening, the Nebraska Cornhuskers come out on top this time around. They’ll sure be motivated to do just that, especially after last year’s result.

For the time being, however, let’s focus on the task at hand and that’s beating Stanford at the Devaney Center! No matter what happens, this should be a fun match and one that if Nebraska wins, they’ll deserve to be ranked as the best team in the country.

GO BIG RED!