Volleyball Weekend Wrap Up

The #5 Nebraska Cornhusker Women’s Volleyball team took a trip through Columbus, Ohio and College Park, Maryland over the weekend, returning home with two more victories, pushing their winning streak to eleven matches.

Friday night, the Huskers took on the Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus, Ohio. The Buckeyes have been a bit of a bugaboo for the Big Red in the last couple years, and they definitely made life rough on the Huskers again, pushing the Huskers to a fourth set before Nebraska took the 3-1 (25-23, 25-12, 22-25, 25-23) win.

Three Husker attackers, Annika Albrecht, Mikaela Foecke, and Lauren Stivrins were in double digits for kills on the night. Foecke led the way with 15 kills and hit .282. Stivrins hit .455 with 12 kills. Albrecht had 11 kills on the way to hitting .280. As a team the Huskers hit .341

Defensively, the Huskers outdug the Buckeyes 59-51 led by 14 digs from Defensive Specialist Sydney Townsend. Foecke, Kelly Hunter, and Kenzie Maloney also had double-digit digs for the night. Both teams had five blocks.

Nebraska helped Ohio State stick around with a total of 14 service errors for the night, a problem that the Huskers have avoided throughout most of the season. It almost bit them in this match as they won two of their sets by the thinnest of margins, two points.

Saturday night had much less suspense for Husker fans as they swept the Maryland Terrapins 25-23, 25-18, 25-13. The Huskers hit .310 to .115 for the Terrapins. No Husker hitter had double-digit kills, but Foecke and Albrecht both had eight kills to lead the team.

The Huskers only notched 29 digs for the night led by nine from Foecke. Nine was also the number of blocks the Huskers had on the night, led by two solo blocks and two assists by Briana Holman.

The Huskers did a much better job of serving Saturday with only eight errors and five aces.

While Maryland is 6-12 in conference, they’ve beaten good teams, including Purdue, who was ranked #17 at the time. Nebraska showed great resilience in this match, coming back after a tough Friday night against Ohio State.

Championship teams overcome adversity, and the Huskers have done that many times this season. The Huskers still have some things that need to be cleaned up. Serving is relatively inconsistent and defense can still be a little shaky. The Huskers have a pretty easy end of the season with Northwestern on Wednesday night in Evanston and then Iowa in Lincoln on Saturday. It will give the team a chance to tidy up loose ends and get ready for the NCAA Tournament, the first two rounds of which should be in Lincoln.

GBR