Nebraska Volleyball advances to Final Four for third straight season

Nebraska volleyball continued to dominate this season, holding off Kentucky three sets to one to advance to the Final Four in Kansas City this coming Thursday.

The Nebraska Cornhuskers volleyball team continues to be one of the best in the nation, making it past the fourth seeded Kentucky Wildcats on Saturday. The Huskers were jilted heading into the tournament, as they were “awarded” the fifth seed and didn’t get to a host the regionals as a result.

Well, Nebraska played angry and got even with Kentucky. While the Huskers lost their first set of the tournament, they still took a 3-1 victory and are heading to the Final Four for the third straight year, their first time ever doing so.

Nebraska controlled the first two sets comfortably and it appeared that they’d sweep the competition with ease. The Huskers came REALLY close to sweeping Kentucky, but the Wildcats battled back in the third set to force a fourth.

Any time the Huskers started to pull away, Kentucky would climb back and were persistent throughout. I give all of the credit in the world to Kentucky in this one… They played Nebraska tough and it only gets more difficult for Big Red in Kansas City next week.

Standing between Nebraska volleyball and a spot in the National Championship Game is Penn State, the number one seed in the tournament. The Huskers swept Penn State earlier in the season and that will be one heck of a match at the Sprint Center on Thursday.

Going back to Saturday’s game, Mikaela Foecke, Annika Albrecht, Briana Holman, and Jazz Sweet all looked fantastic against the Wildcats. According to Brent C. Wagner of The Lincoln Journal Star, those girls had 18 kills, 14 kills, and 11 kills respectively (Holman and Sweet both had 11). Foecke continues to lead the Huskers in her junior season and looked poised throughout the match.

Penn State is going to be a tough opponent for the Huskers and are likely still fuming over losing to Nebraska back in September.  Penn State is the perennial powerhouse in volleyball and always are one of the top teams.

Nebraska is too though and that’s why it’s only fitting that the two have to face off in order to have a chance at competing for the crown. Nebraska has a chance to be Penn State’s only two losses on the year, but it won’t be an easy task.

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The good news, however, is that this match will be played at the Sprint Center in Kansas City and that’s pretty dang close to Lincoln. The crowd noise should favor the Cornhuskers on Thursday night, but don’t expect that to slow Penn State down. This is going to be fun.

Nebraska had not lost a set throughout the entire tournament until Kentucky stole that third set from them on Saturday. Perhaps it was a good thing for the Cornhuskers to get that out of their system before facing the top of the crop in Penn State. There will be little room for mistakes in that match.

Hey, if the Huskers can knock off the Nittany Lions, the National Championship is as good as theirs. Go Big Red!