#1 Husker Volleyball Welcomes Illinois to Devaney for the First Time This Season

While many avid NFL fans may not be happy with this, Nebraska volleyball has another Sunday afternoon match and this time it is finally on TV.

Nebraska will be welcoming the Fighting Illini from Illinois into the Bob Devaney Center on Sunday the 12th. This is their first and only meeting on the conference schedule for the season.

Nebraska, yet again, saw Merritt Beason and Bergen Reilly receive B1G Weekly Honors. No surprise for Husker fans there.

Merritt Beason won Player of the Week for the second week in a row. She averaged 6 kills per set hitting .447 and added 1.75 digs per set and 1 block per set against Penn State and Rutgers.

Bergan Reilly also repeated as Setter of the Week this week. She averaged 11.88 assists a set and 3.13 digs per set. She had 95 total assists between the Penn State and Rutgers matches.

I’m going to be honest and say that I didn’t know Illinois had a volleyball team. I’ve never heard anything about this program and wondered if they even had a team. A quick Google search led me to find out that they do have one. Google really works wonders.

Illinois is just over .500 right now sitting at 14-11 on the year. They don’t really have any wins that pop off the page at me, but they did defeat a strong Indiana team and #16 Purdue back-to-back which is pretty impressive.

Right after those wins, they cruised to a win over Northwestern, but then got stomped on by #2 Wisconsin losing each set by 10+ points.

Illinois played Iowa on Friday night before heading to Lincoln. This was an easy 3-0 win for them as Iowa has yet to win a match in conference play this season.

Senior Raina Terry seems to be carrying the team on her back right now as she has 429 kills on the year and is hitting .198. She also seems to be a force on defense with 173 digs and 65 blocks. She will be a player that will need to be watched all game long to ensure an upset doesn’t occur.

Redshirt Freshman Cari Bohm has done a good job at setting herself up to be a starting middle blocker for this somewhat old Illinois squad. She averages 1.10 blocks a set. She also has 81 kills on 171 attempts, hitting .351 on the year.

Illinois has held opponents to hitting .211 on the year, but this probably will change after they play this strong Nebraska squad. Nebraska is hitting .288 on the year and a team like Illinois probably won’t hold them under this.

Nebraska should remain undefeated and reach 25-0 after this match tomorrow. Illinois may have some weapons, but they are nothing compared to what Husker volleyball has to offer.

Merritt Beason will look to have another big game and maybe even break another personal record like most kills in a match. Harper Murray will also look to continue to improve her serving along with staying consistent on the court.

The match begins at 2:00 p.m. CST tomorrow, November 12th at the Bob Devaney Center in Lincoln, NE. The match will be on TV on the Nebraska Public Media channel. It will also be streaming on B1G+.

#1 Nebraska (24-0, B1G 15-0)

#2 Bergen Reilly 6’1” FR S
#5 Bekka Allick 6’4” SO MB
#6 Laney Choboy 5’3” FR DS/Libero
#7 Maisie Boesiger 5’6” SO DS/Libero
#8 Lexi Rodriguez 5’5” JR DS/Libero
#9 Kennedi Orr 6’0” JR S
#10 Caroline Jurevicius 6’2” FR OH
#11 Hayden Kubik 6’2” SO OH
#13 Merritt Beason 6’4” JR OH
#14 Ally Batenhorst 6’5” JR OH
#15 Andi Jackson 6’3” FR MB
#22 Lindsay Krause 6’4” JR OH
#27 Harper Murray 6’2” FR OH
#44 Maggie Mendelson 6’5” SO MB

Illinois (14-11, B1G 9-6)

#1 Kennedy Collins 6’3” Grad Student MB
#3 Lily Barry 5’6” FR DS/Libero
#4 Bianca May 5’8” Redshirt Freshman S
#7 Sarah Bingham 6’3” Redshirt Sophomore MB/OH
#9 Kayla Burbage 6’4” JR OH
#10 Caroline Barnes 5’11” JR DS/Libero
#11 Cari Bohm 6’4” Redshirt Freshman MB
#12 Raina Terry 6’3” Senior OH
#14 Jessica Nunge 6’2” 5th Year OH
#17 Vanessa Pan 5’7” Grad Student DS/Libero
#22 Brooke Mosher 6’0” Redshirt Sophomore S