Oct 3rd, 2023 / NU Athletics
MATCH PREVIEW
• The No. 2 Nebraska volleyball team will continue its four-match road swing with Big Ten matchups at Michigan State on Friday and Michigan on Saturday.
• The Huskers will meet the Spartans at the Breslin Center in East Lansing on Friday at 6 p.m. There will be no TV broadcast for Friday night’s match, but it will be streamed on B1G+.
• On Saturday, the Big Red will face the Wolverines at the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor at 7:30 p.m. (CT). That match will be televised on BTN and streamed on FoxSports.com.
• The Huskers Radio Network will broadcast all the action on their radio affiliates, including 107.3 FM in Lincoln and 105.9 FM in Omaha on Friday and AM 590 in Omaha on Saturday. A live audio stream will be provided at Huskers.com and on the Huskers app.
• John Baylor is in his 30th season doing play-by-play for the Husker volleyball program. Lauren (Cook) West, a former All-America setter for the Huskers, will provide color commentary.
ABOUT THE HUSKERS
• Nebraska (13-0, 4-0 Big Ten) is off to its best start to a season since beginning the 2008 season with a 20-0 record.
• The Huskers, who led the nation in defense in 2022, have held their opponents this season to a combined .124 hitting percentage, which ranks second nationally behind Pittsburgh.
• Nebraska has been sharp offensively this season, hitting .300 to rank eighth nationally.
• The Big Red is averaging 2.71 blocks per set, which ranks 15th in the country.
• Two-time All-America junior libero Lexi Rodriguez paces the Husker defense with 3.29 digs per set.
• Junior opposite hitter Merritt Beason, a Florida transfer, contributes a team-leading 3.67 kills per set and 2.20 digs per set. Beason is a two-time Big Ten Player of the Week this season.
• Freshman outside hitter Harper Murray is averaging 3.53 kills per set on .294 hitting. Murray has been named Big Ten Freshman of the Week three times this season.
• Sophomore middle blocker Bekka Allick ranks fifth nationally and leads the Big Ten with 1.54 blocks per set. Allick is also hitting .311 with 1.57 kills per set.
• Freshman middle blocker Andi Jackson is off to a strong start as a Husker, averaging 2.26 kills per set on a team-high .436 hitting percentage, which ranks first among Big Ten players and 11th in the nation. Jackson is also contributing 1.17 blocks per set.
• Freshman setter Bergen Reilly is putting up 10.49 assists and 2.42 digs per set. Reilly became just the second true freshman setter to be a day one starter under John Cook (Nicklin Hames). Reilly has been named Big Ten Setter of the Week twice this year.
• From Sept. 12-Sept. 29, Nebraska played five straight ranked teams and won all five matches. It was the sixth time in school history Nebraska played five matches in a row against ranked teams but the first time NU won all five.
• The Huskers went undefeated in non-conference play for the first time since 2016 and just the second time since 2008.
• Nebraska was the last NCAA Division I program to drop a set this season when Creighton won set three of NU’s 3-1 win on Sept. 6. The Huskers had opened the season with 17 consecutive set wins.
SCOUTING REPORT: MICHIGAN STATE
• Michigan State is 11-4 (3-1 Big Ten) with conference wins over Michigan, Northwestern and Rutgers. The Spartans lost at Illinois in five sets.
• Michigan State is hitting .256 on the season and allowing opponents to hit .173. Both marks rank fifth among Big Ten programs.
• Freshman Taylah Holdem leads the Spartans with 3.59 kills per set.
SCOUTING REPORT: MICHIGAN
• Michigan is 2-11 overall and 0-4 in Big Ten play under first-year head coach Erin Virtue. The Wolverines take a seven-match losing streak into Friday night’s home match against Northwestern.
• Michigan is hitting .171 this season, while its opponents are hitting .242.
• Kendall Murray, older sister of Nebraska freshman Harper Murray, leads the Wolverines with 2.61 kills per set this season.
SERIES HISTORY
• Nebraska is 25-2-2 all-time against Michigan State and has won 14 in a row dating back to a 2013 loss in East Lansing. Nebraska played Michigan State twice last season and swept both contests. The last four meetings have been Husker sweeps.
• Nebraska is 21-3 all-time against Michigan and has won 13 in a row dating back to a 2014 loss in Ann Arbor. The Huskers swept the Wolverines in Ann Arbor last year on Oct. 8, 25-14, 26-24, 25-19.
HUSKERS RANKED NO. 2 IN AVCA COACHES POLL
• Nebraska is ranked second in the AVCA Coaches Poll this week.
• The Huskers have been ranked in the top 10 a total of 549 times, which is also the most in NCAA history.
• Nebraska has appeared in all 610 AVCA Coaches Polls it has been eligible for since it was established in 1982. Nebraska is the only program to be ranked in every eligible poll all-time.
• Nebraska’s 610 consecutive weeks of being ranked is the longest active streak in Division I for any sport, leading Connecticut women’s basketball and North Carolina women’s soccer.
• Nebraska has been ranked No. 1 in 102 all-time polls, the most in NCAA history.
AVCA HALL OF FAMER JOHN COOK IN 24TH SEASON AT NEBRASKA
• Nebraska head coach John Cook is in his 24th season as the Nebraska volleyball head coach in 2023. He has led the Huskers to four national championships, 10 final fours, 12 conference championships and 21 top-10 final rankings since 2000.
• Cook has 830 career wins and is one of the all-time winningest coaches in NCAA history. Since taking over the program in 2000, Cook has led the Huskers to a nation-leading .872 win percentage (669-98).
• Under Cook, the Huskers have achieved 64 AVCA All-Americans and 20 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, both among the best in the nation. He is a two-time AVCA National Coach of the Year, earning the prestigious honor in 2000 and 2005, and a seven-time conference coach of the year, including Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2016 and 2017, his first and second Big Ten honors with the Huskers in their Big Ten era (2011-present).
• Cook is one of only two active coaches – and one of six all-time – to be a two-time AVCA National Coach of the Year and was honored in 2008 by USA Volleyball, receiving its All-Time Great Coach Award.
• Cook was inducted into the AVCA Hall of Fame in 2017, joining former Husker volleyball coach Terry Pettit in the hall.
HUSKER VOLLEYBALL SETS ATTENDANCE RECORDS
• It was a record-breaking night at Memorial Stadium on Aug. 30 when Nebraska hosted Omaha in an outdoor volleyball match. The attendance of 92,003 set a record for the largest crowd to watch a women’s sporting event in the United States. The crowd of more than 92,000 also surpassed what is widely regarded as the world-record attendance for any women’s sporting event.
• The previously recognized world record was 91,648 fans in an UEFA Champions League match between Barcelona and Wolfsburg on April 22, 2022, at Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain. The previous record for an American women’s sporting event was 90,185 in USA’s FIFA World Cup Final against China on July 10, 1999, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.
• Along with the two records mentioned above, the Huskers shattered a pair of NCAA records, exceeding the previous records for any NCAA volleyball match and an NCAA volleyball regular-season match.
• Entering the match, the largest-ever crowd for any NCAA volleyball match was 18,755 when Nebraska played Wisconsin in the NCAA Final at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, on Dec. 18, 2021. The largest NCAA volleyball regular-season attendance was 16,833 when Wisconsin hosted Florida at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wis., on Sept 16, 2022.
• The Husker volleyball program has sold out 311 consecutive regular-season matches. Nebraska’s sellout streak is an NCAA women’s record. The Huskers have led the nation in attendance every season since moving into the Bob Devaney Sports Center in 2013.
• Nine of the top 11 crowds in NCAA volleyball history are matches that have involved the Huskers.
• Of the 16 largest NCAA volleyball regular-season crowds, 14 have been Nebraska matches.
• On Sept. 22, Nebraska broke its Devaney Center attendance record since the arena was reconfigured for volleyball in 2013. A crowd of 8,711 turned out to see the Nebraska-Ohio State match. Over the summer, 402 seats were added to the Devaney Center, increasing the capacity to 8,309.
HUSKERS RACK UP BIG TEN WEEKLY AWARDS
• On Aug. 28, Nebraska freshman outside hitter Harper Murray was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week. In her first collegiate matches, Murray led the Huskers to a 3-0 record at the Ameritas Players Challenge. The Ann Arbor, Mich., native averaged 3.67 kills per set with a .343 hitting percentage. She also posted 2.33 digs per set and totaled six blocks, five aces and four set assists. Murray had nine kills on .350 hitting with five blocks and four digs in her collegiate debut against Utah State. She followed with 10 kills on .389 hitting with seven digs and three aces. Murray finished the weekend with 14 kills on .310 hitting with 10 digs for her first collegiate double-double.
• On Sept. 18, Merritt Beason was named Big Ten Player of the Week. Beason led the Huskers to a 3-1 road win at No. 5 Stanford and a 3-1 home win against No. 21 Kentucky with 4.00 kills per set on a .354 hitting percentage to go with 1.88 digs per set. Beason had a season-high 17 kills and 10 digs and hit .438 in the win over Kentucky. The junior from Gardendale, Ala., had 15 kills and hit .273 at Stanford.
• Also on Sept. 18, Murray earned her second Big Ten Freshman of the Week honor after averaging 3.63 kills per set with a .349 hitting percentage and 2.00 digs per set in Nebraska’s two victories. The Ann Arbor, Mich., native finished with 17 kills and 10 digs and hit .308 in the win over Kentucky. She had 12 kills, six digs, four blocks and three aces while hitting .417 at Stanford.
• On Sept. 25, Bergen Reilly was named the Big Ten Setter of the Week and the Big Ten Freshman of the Week. She led the Huskers to sweeps of No. 21 Ohio State and No. 12 Minnesota by averaging 12.67 assists per set, 1.67 digs per set and 0.83 blocks per set. In the 3-0 win against the Buckeyes, Reilly had 37 assists as the Huskers hit .333. Against Minnesota, Reilly showed her defensive prowess, totaling 39 assists with eight digs and four blocks, including a solo stuff.
• On Oct. 2, Beason was named Big Ten Player of the Week for the second time. Beason led the Huskers to road wins at No. 17 Purdue and Indiana with 4.56 kills per set on a .384 hitting percentage to go with 2.33 digs per set. The junior opposite hitter had 19 kills and hit .368 with nine digs and five blocks in a 3-2 win at No. 17 Purdue. Beason followed up in a 3-1 win at Indiana with a career-high 22 kills and season-high 12 digs while hitting .400.
• Also on Oct. 2, Murray was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week for the third time. Murray posted 4.22 kills per set and 1.67 digs per set while hitting .278 in wins at No. 17 Purdue and Indiana. At Purdue, she had a career-high 21 kills with 10 digs and two blocks in a 3-2 win over the Boilermakers. She followed up the next day at Indiana with 17 kills on a .368 hitting percentage to go with five digs.
• Finally on Oct. 2, Reilly earned Big Ten Setter of the Week for the second week in a row. Reilly led the Huskers to wins at No. 17 Purdue and Indiana over the weekend with 11.89 assists per set and 1.89 digs per set with eight kills and a pair of service aces. She guided the Huskers to a combined .323 hitting percentage on the road. In a 3-2 win at No. 17 Purdue, Reilly had a career-high 54 assists with 12 digs and five kills. She followed up on Saturday in a 3-1 win at Indiana with 53 assists, five digs and three kills.