Huskers Travel to Oklahoma

Match 15
#7 Nebraska (13-1, 5-0) at Oklahoma (9-7, 1-3)
When: Saturday, Oct. 4, 2 p.m.
Where: Howard McCasland Field House
Series: NU leads, 58-6
Last Meeting: NU won, 3-0, 11/16/02
Cook vs. Oklahoma: 6-0.

Media Information
Television: None.
Radio: The match can be heard live on B107.3 FM in Lincoln and select Pinnacle Sports Network affiliates. John Baylor will call the action, while NU volleyball Director of Operations Diane Mendenhall will provide color analysis.
Live Stats: soonersports.com
Live Audio: Huskers.com.
Live Video: HuskersNside will offer a live video stream of the Oklahoma match on a subscription-basis. To learn more, go to Huskers.com and click on HuskersNside.

Nebraska Storylines

• Nebraska has made great improvements statistcally on offense since the start of the Big 12 season. The Huskers, who hit .247 in non-conference matches, lead the Big 12 with a .299 hitting percentage in league matches. Three Huskers rank among the conference's top 10 individually this week, including junior outside hitter Ally Rebholz (third, .374), freshman middle blocker Christina Houghtelling (fourth, .368), and sophomore outside hitter Jennifer Saleaumua (10th, .326).
• Nebraska opened the Big 12 Conference season as the preseason favorite to win the league title. The Huskers have won 75 consecutive regular-season Big 12 matches and 76 straight matches against Big 12 teams. Nebraska has won five straight conference titles, and NU head coach John Cook is 65-0 in regular-season league matches.
• After four straight matches of less than 10 blocks, Nebraska returned to its dominant ways at the net and tallied 11 stops against Colorado Wednesday. The total was the Huskers' highest since a four-game win over Santa Clara Sept. 12. Sophomore middle blocker Melissa Elmer led the way with eight blocks, including two solo stops. Nebraska leads the Big 12 with 2.96 blocks per game. NU averaged more than 3.00 blocks per game for three straight seasons entering 2003.

Huskers Travel to Oklahoma
After three straight matches in Nebraska, the seventh-ranked Husker volleyball team takes to the road this weekend to face Oklahoma Saturday at Howard McCasland Field House. First serve is scheduled for 2 p.m.

NU will face a Sooner team that may be building some momentum. OU picked up its first Big 12 Conference win Wednesday night, defeating Baylor, 3-2. The Sooners were led by freshman outside hitter Joanna Schmitt, who pounded 26 kills and posted 13 digs. Schmitt is one of several underclassmen seeing signficant playing time. Nine of Oklahoma's 14 players are freshmen or sophomores.

Like the the Sooners, Nebraska also features a young team, as seven of the nine Huskers reguarly seeing time in NU's 6-2 offense are either underclassmen or first-year starters. However, NU is beginning to look less and less like an inexperienced team. Since winning a five-game match over Texas A&M Sept. 17 in their Big 12 opener, the Huskers have rolled throught the conference, sweeping Texas, Iowa State, Texas Tech and Colorado. Nebraska leads the conference in hitting percentage (.299), blocks per game (2.53) and service aces (2.94) in league matches.

Sophomore outside hitter Jennifer Saleaumua and senior outside hitter Anna Schrad lead Nebraska with 3.41 and 3.38 kills per game, respectively, in league contests, but the Huskers have had a different star in every match. Six players are averaging over 2.00 kills per game, and five NU players with at least 50 attempts in Big 12 matches are hitting more than .270.

Following Saturday's trip to Norman, NU will face three of the Big 12's top five teams in three straight matches. NU travels to Kansas (10-5, 2-2) Oct. 8, then faces Kansas State (13-3, 3-1) and Missouri (11-3, 4-1) at home.

Big 12 Streaks to Watch
The Huskers carry several streaks into this week's matches, including:

• NU head coach John Cook is 65-0 in the Big 12 Conference with three league championships.
• Nebraska has won five straight Big 12 titles and six of a possible seven. NU has won the Big 12 every year since the conference's inception, except 1997.
• The Huskers have won 75 consecutive regular-season Big 12 matches and 76 straight matches against Big 12 teams. NU's last regular-season loss to a Big 12 opponent was at Texas on Oct. 24, 1999. Nebraska won 10 straight conference matches to close the 1999 season, and went 20-0 in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Nebraska's 75-match league winning streak ranks third in NCAA history.
• NU has won 42 straight Big 12 matches at home, dating back to a five-game loss to Kansas State Sept. 22, 1999. After the KSU loss, Nebraska won its last nine Big 12 home matches that year, then won 10 in each of the next three seasons.

33 Consecutive Sellouts
Nebraska owns a streak of 33 consecutive sellouts at the NU Coliseum. The Huskers sold out all 17 matches they played at the Coliseum last season (NU played one match at the 13,500-seat Bob Devaney Sports Center). NU ended the 2001 season with 10 straight sellout crowds at the Coliseum. The Huskers sold out every match at the Coliseum in 2001 except a Tuesday, Sept. 25 match against Creighton. NU has sold out all five of its home matches in 2003.

Oklahoma Quickly (9-7, 1-3)
Oklahoma enters the weekend with some momentum after defeating Baylor in five games Wednesday night in Waco. The win was the Sooners' first in Big 12 Conference play, as they improved to 9-7 overall and 1-3 in the league. Oklahoma's losses were to three of the league's best teams in Missouri, Texas and Kansas State.

Like Nebraska, Oklahoma features one of the league's youngest squads. Nine of the Sooners' 14 players are either freshmen or sophomores. OU's top offensive threat is freshman outside hitter Joanna Schmitt, who ranks among the conference leaders with 4.71 kills per game. Schmitt also leads the team in digs with 2.75 per game. Setter Rachel Jackson is also a freshman. Jackson had 56 assists in the win over Baylor.

The Sooners are coached by Kalani Mahi, who is 25-80 in his fourth season at OU.

Nebraska-Oklahoma Series
Series Notes: Nebraska is 58-6 all-time against Oklahoma. NU has won 11 consecutive matches in the series with the Sooners, Nebraska's fourth winning streak of 10 or more matches in series history. Oklahoma has not won a game against Nebraska since sweeping the Huskers in 1997. Since then, NU has won 33 consecutive games.

Last Meeting: Amber Holmquist and Jennifer Saleaumua combined for 23 kills as No. 4 Nebraska defeated Colorado 30-23, 30-20, 30-26 at the Coors Event Center in Boulder, Colo. Saleaumua led the Huskers with 12 kills on a .323 hitting percentage, while Holmquist swung for a match-high .364 percentage with 11 kills. Despite hitting .260, far below their season average, the Huskers found ways to keep the Buffs off-balance. Colorado hit only .056 in the match, as Holmquist posted 10 blocks.

Cook's Winning Ways
Nebraska Coach John Cook has been amazingly successful during his four seasons at the helm, posting a 109-5 record. Cook picked up his 100th victory as Nebraska head coach Sept. 5 when NU defeated New Orleans, 3-0.

Cook's only losses in his first three seasons were to 2001 NCAA champion Stanford, 2001 NCAA runner-up Long Beach State, 2002 NCAA champion USC and 2002 NCAA semifinal participant Hawaii. The Huskers have played 374 games during Cook's tenure, winning 331 and losing just 43 (.885).

Cook has never lost a Big 12 Conference match, going 65-0 and winning three league titles. NU has dropped just 13 of the 206 conference games they have played over the past three seasons, good for a .941 winning percentage.

Cook was the AVCA Coach of the Year in 2000 after leading Nebraska to a 34-0 season and a national title. He was also named the 2001 Big 12 Coach of the Year. In 2001, NU posted a 31-2 mark and advanced to the NCAA semifinals. Last season, Nebraska also finished with a 31-2 record and advanced to the NCAA regional finals. The Huskers have won three Big 12 titles under Cook.