Nebraska volleyball had arguably their biggest match of the regular season just three weeks in – a date with the second ranked Stanford Cardinal at the Devaney Center – and did not come through, losing in four sets.
The loss will likely knock Nebraska volleyball out of their number one ranking and put Stanford right back at number one. The Huskers were undefeated before losing to Stanford and really only moved up to the top spot due to the Cardinal losing to Minnesota the weekend prior.
When it came down to it, Stanford looked much better than Nebraska in this match. It wasn’t a particularly good time to get the Cardinal, as they just lost their first match in 37 efforts. They were obviously still mad about it, smoking the Cornhuskers in just about every facet of the game.
Aside from the second set in which Nebraska won, the Cardinal played stellar defense and held the Huskers to a negative hitting percentage for much of the match. They were also able to get past the Cornhuskers’ defense, which normally isn’t the case for a lot of teams. Kathryn Plummer is an insanely good player and she continuously made plays when Stanford needed them.
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The Cardinal have a team consisting of a lot of returning players from their 2018 National Championship team and that showed in their dominance over Nebraska on Wednesday night.
The Huskers, despite being a VERY good team, are still young. They have zero seniors on the team and two freshmen starters. While that sets them up well down the road, of course an experienced Stanford team is going to have just about every advantage over them.
While it sucks to lose, Stanford is a good team and Nebraska went toe-to-toe with them. The match went four sets and Nebraska fought back in set one, but couldn’t quite steal it from the Cardinal. That’s a good sign moving forward, as this most definitely could be a match we see again in December, if you catch my drift.
Nebraska Volleyball has one more match before they begin Big Ten play next week; That comes against Wichita State this Saturday afternoon. The Shockers aren’t doing so hot, so Nebraska should easily be able to take care of business and get their confidence back up before they enter conference play.
Here are the first five opponents the Huskers will face in Big Ten play and when they’ll play them:
- at Illinois – September 27th
- at Northwestern – September 28th
- at Rutgers – October 2nd
- Wisconsin – October 5th
- Michigan State – October 11th
As you can see, the Huskers will be on the road for their first three conference games. While the Fighting Illini don’t look to be the same fierce squad we saw a year ago, they’re still a top 25 team and will be tough to play on the road. The other standout game here is against Wisconsin, who has had Nebraska’s number over the past few years.
The Big Ten is no slouch when it comes to volleyball, so Nebraska will have a grueling few months ahead of them as we inch closer to the postseason!
Go Big Red!