Volleyball: #1 Nebraska vs. #6 Stanford Watch Thread

#1 Nebraska vs. #6 Stanford

Another early test for Coach Busboom Kelly and her team

In the opening match of the season against Pitt, Bergen Reiley set a balanced offense with five players having 19 or more attacks. This is excellent and one of the reasons Reiley is very good at her position.

Taylor Landfair and Harper Murray both had quality performances. Landfair produced pivotal blocks as well as clutch kills. Her blocking alongside middles Andi Jackson and Rebekah Allick led the way in reducing Pitt’s Olivia Babcock impact on the match. Holding Babcock to a .121 hitting percentage is impressive.

Harper Murray led Nebraska with 15 kills and a .278 attack percentage. Harper embraces the load she carries for this team and said after the match that she wants the ball in big moments and wants to give those kills to her team. Opposite, Virginia Adrianao set a big block on the right side and attacked the ball well down the line. We will look for her to reduce her errors as the season moves forward. She had five errors on 19 swings. Ideally, she is more consistent.

Against Stanford, Nebraska will be focused on reducing the impact of a single player, just like they needed to against Pitt. Stanford’s Elia Rubin is on the Player of the Year watch list for very good reasons. She takes big swings and often finds the floor for the ball. Against Stanford’s 3-1 win over #16 Florida, Rubin had 14 kills on 35 swings to hit .343.

To slow Rubin down, Nebraska will work to match our best blocking combination on Rubin’s side of the net, Adrianao and Allick. Rubin is complimented in the offense by Jordyn Harvey on the right side and Logan Parks on the right side. Stanford runs a six hitter and two setter offense. Parks is a setter and hitter in this scheme. She sets while she is backrow and hits when she is front. Nebraska will look to disrupt this offense by sending the ball to the backrow setter which forces someone else to set the ball and allows our blockers more time to set their block.

Stanford goes for broke on their serves; Coach Hambly does not care how many they miss; they just serve it hard. Nebraska’s serve receive passers need to absorb that velocity with their arms and have quick feet to get to the ball. Serve reception is a huge key to this match for Nebraska.

Sunday’s match vs. Stanford will begin at 2:30pm CT and will be televised on ESPN. This is a huge weekend for Nebraska Volleyball, and Lincoln as whole, so it will be an exciting event for the city and state! GO BIG RED!!