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Huskers Announce 2015 Schedule
With Omaha hosting the 2015 NCAA Volleyball Final Four, naturally everyone in the state is hoping for the Huskers Volleyball team to make it to the Final Four this year. The Huskers announced the schedule they’ll have to negotiate to make it to their first Final Four appearance since 2008.
Of note in the schedule is a trip to Austin to take on the Texas Longhorns, who made the Final Four last year, and the Oregon Ducks, who made the second round last season; playing defending National Champion Penn State twice, and a trip to Omaha to play Creighton at the CenturyLink Center, site of the Final Four.
The annual Ameritas Players’ Challenge will be held the 11th and 12th of September, with UC-Davis, Georgia Tech, and the University of South Florida coming to Devaney. The season begins on the 28th and 29th of August with Tulsa, Grand Canyon, and Pittsburgh coming to town for the Nebraska Invite at Devaney Center.
The Huskers only graduated one senior last year, but losing setter Mary Pollmiller leaves an enormous question mark for the team. Who will replace her, and will she have the same control of the court that Mary showed?
On top of that, much-hyped Briana Holman’s transfer from LSU has been held up because LSU wouldn’t release her to play this season (and that included sand season).
There will be question marks, but some of those questions will be answered on April 25th in Grand Island in the Huskers’ only spring match this season, as the Huskers take on Kansas State in a sold-out exhibition match at the Heartland Events Center.
Husker Volleyball 2015 Schedule (PDF)
Huskers Complete a Brief, Successful Sand Season
The Huskers took to the sand again this season, and finished 6-2 after a week-long trip through Hawaii and Arizona, finishing ranked 15th in the polls at the conclusion of their season.
The Huskers lost to #3 USC and #1 Hawai’i to start the season, but then won six straight, including beating #19 Grand Canyon in Phoenix, and #11 Arizona in Tucson.
To this point, the Husker coaching staff has essentially used sand volleyball as a means to refine skills and give the girls some meaningful competition through the offseason. In 2016, sand volleyball becomes the 90th NCAA championship sport. To continue, the Huskers will have to go all in, and that would include competing against schools who recruit sand players (think Hawai’I, the California, Florida, and Arizona schools) and don’t just use their hard court players to play. With the fact that Nebraska really can’t have home matches during the spring sand season, it will be interesting to see what direction coaches go.