Red-White Volleyball Scrimmage

The red-white scrimmage is tonight at 6 pm. Unless you have a ticket you’ll be listening on the radio. Huskers.com tells us you can listen on Husker Sports Network radio affiliates including 107.3 FM in Lincoln.

These annual pre-season scrimmages are exciting to watch for us fans because they unveil the team. We’ve been talking about players, pouring over schedules, and prognosticating (often badly) about future outcomes based on pure speculation. Meanwhile the team has been preparing mostly behind the scenes. On this night we see their work, improvement and possible positions for the first time.

Take note, Coach Cook may use different line ups on each side of the court than he will for the home opener. One of the best parts of having SUCH a talented team like Nebraska is that he can make the match competitive; our second string would still probably be a top 25 team on its own! Some teams don’t have the practice players or non starters to make the starting seven work hard during scrimmage. Nebraska a bench full of players that would start on many other teams. So these aren’t just “reps”. This is a legit match.

What you want out of this match is to see how they compete in front of the a lively crowd and under pressure when the points get close. You try to simulate these situations throughout pre-season in practice but this scrimmage is as real as it gets, until the first game against Creighton.

I, for one, will be listening to hear (gosh darn I wish I could watch the match) first how the freshmen perform. Madi Kubik will play on the outside. I’m interested in her passing and hitting ability. How many errors does she have hitting compare to kills? Her hitting percentage is of great interest to me.

Nicole Drewnick will set somewhere. I’d like to know how she blocks (she’s 6’1’’) and how well she connects with the hitters. At this point in the season a freshmen setter may have a hard time setting the same ball each repetition. Hitters are different so, can she work well with all the players?

Kenzie Knuckles is a superb defensive player. I’d like to see how well she serve receives. Does she make many mistakes? I was impressed with Megan Miller (SO, defensive player) last year. She didn’t serve receive much. I look forward to seeing her stats as well.

It is that time of year to talk less and play more. Actually, I might talk/write more even though they are playing more too. GBR!