Nebraska Volleyball Meets the Missouri Tigers in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament for an Old Big 12 Matchup

Tournament time proved to be electric in the Bob last night. Husker fans really showed up and showed out for this amazing team and it was definitely a sight to see last night. Now, we turn the page to Missouri. We have to bring the same energy as last night.

It was sort of shocking to see Nebraska down the entire set until they took the lead at 23-22. They definitely can’t have off sets like this down the road in the tournament.

It was so crazy to see how excited the fans in the Devaney Center after the Huskers finished off a long rally to get to match point. It was as loud as it had been all night.

One thing that I found so fun and interesting about NCAA volleyball tournament time is that ESPN+ has a broadcast called The 5th Set.

The 5th Set is like NFL RedZone and cuts to every match going on. I recommend watching this broadcast if you want to stay updated on every match going on at that time!

Missouri played Delaware in the first match of the night at the Devaney Center last night and easily beat them 3-0 to advance. Missouri is the #8 seed in the Nebraska quarter of the bracket.

Missouri finished 7th in the SEC standings this year. They have an overall record of 18-12 and a record of 9-9 in SEC conference play. They finished exactly in the middle of their conference.

The Tigers only had two Top 25 wins all year and they both came against Auburn on October 20th and November 12th.

They did play Louisville early on in the season and lost this 3-0. During this match, they were held to hitting .057 for the match. The Huskers have to do the same thing and keep the Missouri hitters cold.

Sophomore Janet deMarrais has proved to be one of the Tigers best hitters. She is hitting .198 and is averaging 3.21 kills a set. In the first round, she had 13 kills and hit .290 for the night.

Junior Jordan Iliff is also putting in a lot of work the for the Tigers as well averaging 3.44 kills a set and is hitting .241 on the year. She also had a good match in the first round with 10 kills and hitting .286 for the match.

They also proved to be strong on defense last night against Delaware. Sierra Dudley, Dilara Gedikoglu, and Maya Sands combined for a total of 24 digs on the night.

The team had a total of 34 digs so these three had over half of the entire teams digs. They will be all over the floor tonight against the Huskers. It should be filled with long rallies and lots of nervous people in the crowd hoping Nebraska gets the point.

Missouri will come in fighting. They want to be the team to upset the #1 Nebraska Cornhuskers. Everyone wants to do this, but Missouri will look to be the ones that actually get it done.

Nebraska will need to play an all around game and not have an off set like they did last night against Long Island. Harper Murray will also need to clean up her service errors along with the rest of the team.

Even though Murray only had 3 service errors, they came at times when we didn’t need them. These are just free points we are giving the other team. It also gives them momentum as well and we can’t be doing this.

We will hopefully see Bekka Allick return as many speculated why she was out. Nebraska coaches said Maggie Mendelson has been doing great in practice and wanted to give her playing time.

I sort of saw it as a match that we didn’t really need Allick since we do have strong girls, like Mendelson, that can take her place.

I chalked her absence up to just letting her rest before we get deep into the tournament when we will really need her to be amazing.

It will be a wait and see game on Lindsey Krause. It sounds like she could return at any moment, but they may keep her out until the big games in the tournament. Every game is a big game at this point, but we don’t want to risk anything with her.

We also have strong girls like Ally Batenhorst, Merritt Beason, and Harper Murray that can carry the weight on that outside hitter position. They’ve been doing this since she got injured and have been doing an amazing job.

Nebraska hosts Missouri tonight at the Bob Devaney Center for the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament. The match starts at 7:00pm CST and will be streamed on ESPN+.

#1 Nebraska (29-1)

#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

Missouri (18-12)

#1 Colleen Finney 6’1” Grad Student MB
#3 Maya Sands 5’7” SO Libero
#4 Jordan Iliff 6’2” JR RS
#5 Lauren Forbes 5’8” JR Libero
#6 Kaylen Rush 5’7” FR Libero
#8 Dilara Gedikoglu 5’10” Grad Student OH
#9 Morgan Isenberg 6’0” JR MB
#12 Janet deMarrais 6’2” SO OH
#27 Sierra Dudley 6’1” FR S

Saturday Match-Ups From Around the Tournament – 12/2/2023

#6 Western Kentucky vs. #3 Tennessee
Minnesota vs. #3 Creighton
#8 Houston vs. #1 Stanford
#8 USC vs. #1 Pittsburgh
TCU vs. #3 Arkansas
#5 Arizona St. vs. #4 BYU
#5 Dayton vs. #4 Washington St.