Nebraska Cornhuskers: Volleyball team advances to National Championship

The Nebraska Cornhuskers volleyball team continues to look dominant on their run to a second title in three years. They edged out Penn State in five sets on Thursday night at the Sprint Center.

When the beginning of the Nebraska Cornhuskers volleyball season began, the team struggled right out of the gate. The Huskers lost their first two games of the season and had another rough loss early on in the season to Northern Iowa.

After that third loss, however, Nebraska kicked it into high gear. They’d only lose one more game the rest of the season and went on a long streak of not dropping a single set. Nebraska didn’t lose a set during the tournament until the Elite Eight when they played Kentucky on their home turf.

Perhaps this great stretch is because the Huskers felt a bit gipped by not getting to host a round in regionals. Perhaps it’s just because they’re a good team, ready to add another National Championship to their ranks.

Whatever the case may be, Saturday is the final test for this Nebraska volleyball team. They’ll be facing the second ranked Florida Gators at the Sprint Center in Kansas City and the Gators were one of those two early season losses.

Living in Kansas City, I got to watch Nebraska square off against Penn State on Thursday and it was a lot of fun. It basically felt like the city of Lincoln packed into the Sprint Center, which is nothing new at venues, but Kansas City doesn’t get as many Nebraska events ever since the Huskers moved to the Big Ten.

Nebraska took the first set and looked dominant. When Penn State, the number one seed in the country, took the next two sets, it looked like Nebraska’s season could be coming to a close. They battled back fiercely, however, and edged out the Nittany Lions to force a fifth set.

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In that final set, the Huskers got back to controlling the match and were able to upset the number one seeded Penn State. The Nittany Lions only lost two games all year (counting this one) and both were at the hands of the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

According to Brent C. Wagner of the Lincoln Journal Star, the Huskers have won seven straight matches against Penn State. That’s insane considering how good of a program Penn State is.

As mentioned above, the Huskers will face Florida on Saturday at the Sprint Center. The Gators also won in five sets and beat the defending champions from a season ago in Stanford.

The keys to this game will continue to be staying calm under pressure. In the fourth set, Penn State had a match point and could have ended the whole shebang right there, but the Huskers didn’t panic and managed to take the set and force a deciding fifth set.

Mikaela Foecke had 19 kills and Briana Holman and Annika Albrecht both had 13 kills, according to Brent C. Wagner. All three are going to play a major role in Saturday’s match and hopefully the Huskers can continue this awesome run and knock off the Gators in Kansas City this weekend.

If Nebraska can just get past one more team, they’ll be hoisting the trophy in front of what will more than likely be a 90% Cornhuskers crowd at the Sprint Center. Let’s get it done!

Go Big Red!