Nebraska Volleyball Plays Texas State in the Second Round of NCAA Tournament

Nebraska volleyball opens the NCAA Tournament at 2:30 pm CST on Thursday at the CHI Health Center Omaha Convention Center. The Huskers will take on Texas State as the Bobcats were victorious over Utah Valley this afternoon in the first round match. Thursday’s second round match will be streamed on WatchESPN.com.

Husker Sports Network will broadcast all the Husker action on HSN radio affiliates, including 107.3 FM in Lincoln and AM 590 in Omaha. A live audio stream will be provided at Huskers.com and the Huskers app.

Here is a look at Texas State

Tyeranee Scott, a 6’0’’ senior middle, runs a tough slide. She had 14 kills on 22 attempts this afternoon for a .591 hitting percentage. Janell Fitzgerald is a 6’1’’ junior. She hits on the left and right side with most of her swings on the right. She gets the most sets for this Bobcat team. Today she had 37 attempts.

Caitlin Buettner is a 6’2’’ sophomore, outside hitter. She gets the second most sets for the team, today she had 31 attempts. Courtney Heiser is a 5’11’’ sophomore outside hitter. As an outside she gets set frequently but isn’t a go to player for this team.

Emily DeWalt runs the offense from the setter position. She is 5’10’’junior with strong setting hands. Her Coach described her as a “special player” that wants the challenge. The whole team played a ton of defense. They dug all things coming across the net against Utah Valley. Of course, in theory the balls were coming at a lower velocity today than they will against Nebraska tomorrow, so we will watch the next match with a fresh set of eyes; it could be different.

Nebraska is likely to target DeWalt as the shortest blocker on the court. They will also be sure to run plenty of slides because, of course, they are great at them, but also because it will force Scott in the middle for Texas State to recover from her offensive slide, run a long way and block the NU middles on a slide.

Tough serving will be on the white board as a goal for NU. Not only will Nebraska’s serving be tougher than the Bobcats have seen thus far but it will also be a stat Nebraska NEEDS deep in the tournament. The Huskers want serve well tomorrow and continue to do it against every team they face. Serve confident, serve tough.

The exact opposite of serving...serve receive passing is essential. I wouldn’t expect the passing goal to be any different tomorrow than it is in another match. Passing has a great deal to do with technique and mindset. Mindset can certainly impact body position and help a player relax or force her to tense in shoulders and body. Tense bodies lead to balls flying in the bleachers.

Also interesting to watch is how Coach Cook plays Callie Schwarzenbach and Kayla Caffey. At this point in the season, Caffey is the M2 and earned that spot, but Schwarzenbach offers some blocking advantages that Nebraska will need in later matches. Will he put Callie in the match tomorrow to get her moving in this NCAA tournament?

In other news: Creighton lost their first round match against Morehead State in five sets.
Check out all the scores from the first day of the tournament. You can still watch tonight on WatchESPN.com or ESPN3. Day one was the complete first round. Tomorrow’s matches are all part of the second round of the tournament. At the end of play tomorrow night, there will only be 16 teams remaining.

Check out our NCAA Bracket Analysis and come back to the game thread to watch with us tomorrow!