Husker Volleyball Wins in Three Sets Despite Early Season Errors

Nebraska 3 vs Texas A&M Corpus Christi 0 - 25-15, 25-16, 25-9

Starters:
Kennedi Orr- Setter
Madi Kubik- Left side hitter
Kenzie Knuckles/Lindsay Krause - Left side (back/front)
Kaitlyn Hord- Middle blocker
Bekka Allick -Middle blocker
Lexi Rodriguez - Libero
Nicklin Hames/Whitney Lauenstein- Right side (back/front)

There were too many service errors for both teams. Nebraska missed 10 and TAMCC missed 9. We as fans can give the teams a pass for their first set in the first match of the season but Coach Cook wasn’t please with it. He shook his head a lot.

Coach Cook called a timeout at 21-13 in the first set because of two setting decision errors. They weren’t the worst decisions but it was a teaching moment for Kennedy Orr. The two errors: a set dump that was too high and too easy and then a set 8 feet off the net when it should be 2 feet off the net.

The passing was poor at this time in the game but the job of each player on the court is to make the ball better. If you get a bad pass, make it better for the next player. Out of the timeout, the serve goes to Nicklin Hames, she passes a good ball and Huskers side out.

There was another learning moment in the second set after Orr served a ball into the bottom of the net (not good), then miss-set a ball and was called for a double contact. After those two plays Lexi Rodriguez thought a serve was out, it was in. She let it drop in on the court. These are mistakes that Coach Cook will use to teach and coach and ultimately get better. They are unforced errors. They cannot happen in more competitive matches and expect a W.

Despite the errors, some of the serving strategy was effective in this match. Multiple players used their short serve followed by a long serve (sometimes called a yo-yo) to disrupt the serve receive for the Islanders. Hames and Rodriguez both used this strategy and found aces there.

Kaitlin Hord was a blocking WALL against the Islanders. This is a brick wall we are talking about here, not made from plywood or drywall certainly not sticks. She was strong and nothing got by. She finished with 7 blocks, 5 kills and hit .833. She needs to be set more tonight against Tulsa. She only had 6 attempts compare to M. Kubik’s 26 attempts.

Bekka Allick, the other MB for Nebraska in this match saw 9 attempts and produced 7 kills. Post game talk by the coaches includes instructions to set middles more, much more.

Lauenstein was impressive with big kills but also in low errors. She only made 1 error for the match with 8 kills to hit .368. This is a big improvement from last season when she had a high error rate. Her blocking was imposing to TAMCC. She blocked 7 balls but she also forced them to make a lot of errors trying to hit around her. The Islander outside hitters had 13 hitting errors.

Hayden Kubik came in for the final three points of the match. She earned the match winning point on a set to her on the outside from Orr.

Nebraska plays again tonight, Friday, August 26th, at 6:30pm against Tulsa. Tulsa lost earlier today to Pepperdine in four sets.