When: September 21st, 2011, 7:00 PM Central

Where: The Coliseum - Home of Husker Volleyball, Lincoln, Nebraska

TV: Big Ten Network

Radio: Husker Sports Network, including B107.3 FM in Lincoln and KTWI 93.3 FM in Omaha, and on Huskers.com

Web Video: BTN2Go

Live Stats:Huskers.com

#10 Nebraska takes on #5 Penn State in what is the Big Ten Conference opener for both teams. 

We have not typically done open threads for "Olympic Sports" (as the B1G refers to them), so consider this kind of an experiment. Nebraska's Olympic Sports have been televised in the past, but even then only rarely, and typically only in the state of Nebraska by NETV. 

Now we have the BTN. Husker Sports are available anywhere in the US. More Husker fans will be paying attention, and if you're one of those and looking for a place online to discuss and comment about the games, please consider giving Corn Nation a try. We'll be nice. Mostly. 

This weekend it gets real for the Nebraska volleyball team. So much so that the athletic department is encouraging fans to wear red. What's with all these redouts and blackouts all the sudden? I find this a little weird. Don't we always we red to the games? Maybe they want me to break out my red pants and red socks and red shoes and red face paint all while dying my hair red and painting my fingernails red.

But anyway, that's beside the point. Nebraska plays a team this weekend that they could very well lose to. Yes, it's hard to believe that the ladies could be beaten by a former Big XII team that they dominated, but things are different this year. This isn't quite the all powerful Nebraska Volleyball team of past years. And, of course, there is this whole Big Ten thing going on now.

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It's not a football game, but this is a big night for Husker Sports. 

Ndamukong Suh has a chance to win the Heisman Trophy. This looks to be so close that it might be the most-watched Heisman ceremony in history. 

Nebraska takes on Oregon State in basketball. The Huskers are at 6-2, Oregon at 

The Huskers take on Texas in volleyball at the QWest Center in Omaha for a chance to get to the Final Four. The game will be on ESPNU at  8:00pm.  Live Stats are available here. 

I might be the only person here, and I can't watch the Nebraska - Oregon State basketball game because it's not available outside Nebraska, but if you bleed Husker Red, please join and post your comments. 

For good luck, here's Flying Suh, and.... Husker Volleyballer Tara Mueller. 

Flying Suh is 5-1, his only loss by one second, a second that will live in the hearts of Husker fans forever!  Photo by Dennis Hubbard

Terry Pettit sent me his book "Talent and the Secret Life of Teams" probably over a year ago. I promptly read it, loved it, then needed to review it for CN. I kept putting it off, thinking if I did it during the off-season, no one would read the review, and it would do a disservice to a guy who not only can write a fantastic book, but had one helluva hand in building the sport of women's volleyball (not just Husker volleyball, but the sport) as much as anyone. 

With Nebraska taking on Iowa State this evening at the Qwest Center in the 2009 NCAA Volleyball Tournament, the time is perfect for Pettit's review. Why you ask? Well, I'll tell ya. 

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14th-ranked Iowa State won in five sets over #5 Nebraska, 18-25, 25-19, 23-25, 25-20, 15-12, giving the Cyclones their first win in school history over the Huskers in a series dating back to 1975. The Huskers struggled in their attack, committing 34 errors. 

The win leaves the series at 1-75. Iowa State is coached by former Husker Christy Johnson, who earned All-America honors in '94 and 95. She was the starting setter when Nebraska won their first national title in 1995.

If the football team somehow loses to Iowa State, this will be one horrific week. 

I don't know how many of you caught the Nebraska - Oklahoma volleyball game on ESPNU this past week, but if you did you had to be amazed at how close the Oklahoma fans were to the Nebraska volleyball players during the serves. Now it sounds like there will be some actiontaken on the part of the Big 12 conference:

Nebraska coach John Cook said Monday that OU event management staff and Big 12 referees lost control of Wednesday's match in Norman, Okla. The Huskers beat the Sooners in five sets before a crowd of 2,046, the second-largest in OU volleyball history.

Cook said OU fans viciously taunted Nebraska servers from extremely close proximity.

Nebraska athletic director Tom Osborne said he has addressed the matter with the appropriate people. He would not say whether he contacted Oklahoma or Big 12 officials, or both.

Several members of the Oklahoma women's basketball team stood right next to the Nebraska player whenever they were making a serve. You had to be amazed that the Husker volleyballers maintained their composure with the opposing team's fans screaming only inches away. The harassment had an obvious effect, however, as Nebraska committed 14 service errors throughout the match.

Nebraska struggled at times, but got eventually the best of the Sooners, winning in five sets. The win stopped a two-match losing streak.

The word "unsportsmanlike" was used to describe the taunting by Oklahoma fans, but that's a little light. Abuse might be more appropriate. An OU spokesperson stated:

"We view this event as an opportunity to further educate our student-athletes and fans about sportsmanship, and to continue modeling it as administrators, coaches and staff."

 What a load of crap. If they were concerned about it, they should have done something during the match, but clearly they didn't care. They were more worried about beating a struggling Husker team than they were with anything resembling decent behavior.

What is it with Oklahoma that they feel the need to resort to this kind of classlessness?

The Husker volleyball team dropped to sixth in the first seasonal AVCA poll released today. The Huskers started the season ranked third behind Penn State and Texas. Today's poll finds them ranked as follows: 

Penn State
Texas
Washington 
Hawaii
Florida
Nebraska
Michigan

The drop was due to Nebraska's loss to Michigan Friday night in the AVCA Showcase tournament. It was a tough season opener for the Huskers - they were swept by a Michigan team to whom they'd never lost a set. On Saturday, the Huskers came back with a five-set win against then 11th-ranked Minnesota. 

I didn't see Friday's game, but Mrs C said it was like watching a high school team take on the Wolverines. Saturday's game was much more pleasing - it's always enjoyable when Nebraska beats Minnesota in volleyball. ALWAYS. 

Kansas State dropped to 23rd from 22nd after going 0-2 in the tournament, while Texas remains at second after going 2-0 over the weekend, sweeping 15th-ranked San Diego, and coming back after being down two sets to beat 23rd-ranked Long Beach State. 

Side note: We'd love to find someone to cover volleyball on a regular basis. If you're interested, send a note to cornnation@gmail.com. Thanks. 

Fans who bought tickets to tonight’s Final Four matches got their money’s worth. In the first match, Texas won the first two sets to go up 2-0 over Stanford, then proceeded to lose the next three and become the only team to lose a 2-0 lead in the history of the NCAA volleyball tournament.

That was only the start of the evening.

The 2008 Husker team went down to the Penn State juggernaut 2-0, losing the first two sets 25-17, 25-18. The Nitts stretched their NCAA record set win streak to 111. It looked like another Penn State blow out before the Huskers came roaring back in the next two sets.

In the third set, Nebraska’s serving kept Penn State off-balance while the hitting improved. Hitting just .169 in the first two sets while Penn State hammered away at .403, the Huskers hit .348 while holding the Nitts to .203 over the next two sets, winning both 25-15, and 25-22. In sets three and four, the Huskers hit .348, while holding Penn State to .203.

The match stood tied at 2-2. The NCAA record-setting crowd of 17,430 of mostly Husker fans had to be exhausted by the time the fifth and final set started.

In the final set, the score bounced back and forth before Penn State scored three straight to take a 5-3 lead. After a Nebraska time out Penn State scored again to make it 6-3. Nebraska came back, tying the set at six, then scored two more to stretch their lead to 8-6. Both teams scored twice before Penn State took a time out with the Nebraska lead at 10-8. After the time out, Penn State reeled off six straight points to take a 14-10 lead. The Huskers would score only once more while the Nitts’ Megan Hodge pounded the final score home for a 15-11 final set and match score.

Penn State's Nicole Fawcett finished with 24 kills, while teammate Megan Hodge finished with 23 kills and 12 digs for a double-double. Nebraska's Jordan Larson finished with 17 kills and an incredible 18 digs for another double-double. Fellow Huskers Tara Mueller had 15 kills while Lindsey Licht finished with 13.

The Huskers lost a game in Nebraska for the first time in 96 tries, they lost for the first time at Omaha’s Qwest Center, and the Husker seniors Jordan Larson, Amanda Gates, and Rachel Schwartz lost their first game ever in the state. Larson finishes her career as the best all-around player in Husker volleyball history.

The story would end there if scores and stats were the only parts of the tale that mattered. What mattered is that the 2008 team didn’t quit fighting, just like the week before when they made an incredible come back at Washington and beat the Huskies on their home floor. They ended Penn State’s run of perfection and took them to the limit before losing a chance at a national title match while playing a level of volleyball of which no one expected.

If you missed the game, you missed the best volleyball I’ve ever seen. Both teams made some mistakes, but both played to the edge of their abilities. The fast, frenzied pace of the game and the number of amazing plays by both teams had to leave fans exhausted physically and emotionally by the time they filed out of Qwest Center to greet horrendous weather. It was collegiate volleyball of the highest level.

Nebraska's season ended tonight with the Huskers’ record at 31-3. They earned a Big 12 championship, shared with Texas, but more importantly they earned the respect of volleyball fans across the nation. 

What a difference a year makes. Last year’s team had all the athletes, lost two games all season, but failed to reach the Final Four and finished as a major disappointment. This year’s team began with doubts that they’d compete well in the Big 12 and finished the season proving they deserved to be on a national stage.

Whether we like it or not, teams tend to be measured by the trophies they acquire. The 2008 team will prove to be an exception. They’ll be remembered most for an epic game they lost but went down fighting to the end.