Nebraska Cornhuskers Volleyball at Big Ten Volleyball Media Days tonight

Select members of the Nebraska Cornhuskers' volleyball team are at the Big Ten Network Headquarters in Chicago, Illinois tonight for the first ever Big Ten Volleyball Media Days. The Big Ten Conference is the first league in the nation to have an in-person preseason volleyball media event.

Nebraska head coach John Cook is joined by players Madi Kubik and Kenzie Knuckles tonight to represent the program. Kubik is a senior from West Des Moines, Iowa who plays outside hitter. Knuckles is a senior from Yorktown, Indiana and plays defensive specialist/libero.

The Big Ten Network will air the first day’s broadcast of Big Ten Volleyball Media Days from 7:00-8:30 pm CT. The programming will re-air again at 10:30 pm ET tonight and in the early hours of Aug. 2 at 1:00 am and 3:30 am ET. In addition to Nebraska, six other Big Ten programs will participate tonight including Indiana, Michigan State, Michigan, Northwestern, Ohio State, and Purdue. The other seven Big Ten programs (Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota, Penn State, Rutgers, and Wisconsin) will participate in day two of the event tomorrow.

In addition to the Media Days coverage, the Big Ten Network is also airing further Nebraska volleyball related content tonight from Midnight to 12:30 am with the “At The Net” episode featuring Keonilei Akana. Then in the afternoon tomorrow from 2:00-3:00 pm ET is a replay of the 2018 match between Penn State and Nebraska in Lincoln followed by the 2016 Minnesota at Nebraska match from 3:00-4:00 pm ET.

Also being aired following those games are Nebraska losses at Wisconsin in 2018 from 4:00-5:00 pm and again later from 7:00-8:00 pm the 2021 loss at Wisconsin immediately prior to Media Days Part Two from 8:00-9:00)

Ahead of Big Ten Volleyball Media Days tonight, the preseason poll and the 2022 Preseason All-Conference Team honors were released earlier this afternoon. Nebraska was picked No. 2 in the Big Ten behind reigning 2021 champion Wisconsin, and three Huskers were named to the preseason team.

Preseason All-Conference Team honors included Huskers Kaitlyn Hord (senior middle blocker from Louisville, Kentucky), Lexi Rodriguez (sophomore defensive specialist/libero from Sterling, Illinois), and the only unanimous selection to the team Kubik.

Hord earned All-Big Ten First Team honors in 2019, 2020, and 2021 along with a number of AVCA honors including All-America Second Team in 2021.

Rodriguez earned All-Big Ten First Team, All-Freshman Team, and Defensive Player of the Year honors in addition to AVCA National Freshman of the Year and All-America First Team honors in 2021.

Kubik earned All Big Ten First Team honors along with AVCA All-America Third Team honors in 2021. She also received All-Big Ten Freshman of the Year and Second Team honors in 2019 while being named All-American Honorable Mention (2019, 2020) and VolleyballMag.com National Freshman of the Year honors in 2019.

The Nebraska volleyball season kicks off in just 25 days with a visit to Lincoln by the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders on Aug. 26. The inter-squad Red & White Scrimmage will precede the season on Aug. 20 in Lincoln at 6:00 pm CT. The Big Ten Network announced earlier this afternoon that at least 55 total matches will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network, ESPN2, ESPNU, and FS1 networks. This is in addition to games streamed on the B1G+ subscription based platform.

Among those games are a number of UNL matchups. Those games include (CT):

• Ole Miss at Nebraska - Sept. 3 - BTN - 7 p.m.
• Stanford at Nebraska- Sept. 13 - BTN - 7 p.m.
• Nebraska at Michigan State - Oct. 6 - BTN - 7 p.m.
• Penn State at Nebraska - Oct. 14 - BTN - 7:30 p.m.
• Nebraska at Purdue - Oct. 19 - BTN - 7 p.m.
• Nebraska at Illinois - Oct. 22 - BTN - 7 p.m.
• Nebraska at Wisconsin - Oct. 26 - BTN - 8 p.m.
• Indiana at Nebraska - Nov. 2 - BTN - 8 p.m.
• Nebraska at Ohio State - Nov. 13 - BTN - 3:30 p.m.
• Purdue at Nebraska - Nov. 20 - BTN - Noon
• Wisconsin at Nebraska - Nov. 25 - BTN - 7 p.m.
• Minnesota at Nebraska - Nov. 26 - BTN - 8 p.m.

There is also potential for further games to be added as the season progresses. For the full league television schedule, Big Ten fans can find that here:

In addition to media days scheduling tonight, the Big Ten Conference also announced today a new partnership with Volleyball World for a multi-year distribution deal that will result in at least 70 Big Ten Volleyball matches appearing on VolleyballWorld.tv. Volleyball World is “a new partnership between the FIVB and the CVC Capital Partners aimed at driving growth, innovation, and investment in volleyball around the globe”

The subscription based service of VolleyballWorld.tv will feature almost 50 matches to subscribers outside of North America and certain Caribbean islands along with access to 28 matches in B1G+ inventory aired concurrently on B1G+, the Big Ten Network’s subscription streaming service.

In addition to match inventory, the Big Ten Network’s “At The Net” show giving behind-the-scenes looks at the volleyball players and programs across the conference will be available to subscribers of VolleyballWorld.tv as well.