NU Begins Busy Week at Texas Tech

Lincoln -- No. 11 Nebraska opens a busy week Wednesday when it travels to Lubbock, Texas, to take on Texas Tech. First serve at the United Spirit Arena is scheduled for 7 p.m. Following its match against the Red Raiders, NU will return to Lincoln for two weekend matches. The Huskers will face Oklahoma Saturday, Nov. 1, at 7 p.m., and No. 12 Northern Iowa Sunday, Nov. 2, at 5 p.m.

The schedule doesn’t slow down for Nebraska any time soon. The UNI match, which will be televised nationally by CSTV, kicks off a brutal five-match stretch in which the Huskers play four ranked teams in 13 days. Three of those matches are on the road, including Nov. 5 at No. 21 Texas A&M, Nov. 8 at No. 24 Missouri and Nov. 15 at seventh-ranked Kansas State. NU is 2-2 against teams ranked in the USA Today/AVCA Coaches top 25 this season.

Nebraska has swept two straight opponents since losing back-to-back five-game matches to the Wildcats and Tigers two weeks ago. NU appeared to get back on track offensively in three-game wins at Baylor and against Iowa State. Nebraska hit .279 against the two teams, which is 31 points higher than its season average. Seven Huskers averaged more than 2.00 kills per game, including sophomore outside hitter Jennifer Saleaumua and senior outside hitter Anna Schrad, who both averaged 4.00. Schrad hit .304 for the week and had 15 kills at Baylor, her best mark since Sept. 27 vs. Texas Tech. Saleaumua also averaged 5.50 digs per game against ISU and the Bears, and she has led the Huskers in digs in five of the past seven matches.

With nine Big 12 matches remaining, the Huskers are still in the thick of the Big 12 race. Kansas State sits atop the league standings with a 10-1 record, followed by Nebraska (9-2), Missouri (9-2) and Texas A&M (8-3)

Media Information
Television: CSTV (DirecTV 610) will televise the Northern Iowa match live nationally. NETV will televise the Oklahoma match live statewide.
Radio: All three matches can be heard live on B107.3 and selected Pinnacle Sports Network affiliates. John Baylor NU volleyball Director of Operations Diane Mendenhall will call the matches.
Live Stats and Live Audio: Huskers.com (OU and UNI matches only).
Live Video: A live video stream of the OU match will be available through HuskersNside. Click on Huskers.com to subscribe.

A Win for the Huskers ...
With a victory over Texas Tech Wednesday, the Huskers would:

• Improve to 20-1 all-time vs. Texas Tech and extend their winning streak against Tech to 15.
• Improve to 5-0 this season vs. teams from the state of Texas.
• Improve to 323-188 all-time vs. Big 12 teams.
• Win their 70th Big 12 Conference match under John Cook, who is 69-2 all-time in the Big 12.

35 Consecutive Sellouts
Nebraska owns a streak of 35 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 13,595-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. In 2003, NU has sold out all eight of its matches at the Coliseum. The Huskers drew 6,142 fans for their match against Iowa State Oct. 25 at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.

Texas Tech Quickly (9-11, 1-10)
Texas Tech is 9-11 and 1-10, with its only Big 12 win coming over Oklahoma Oct. 22. The Red Raiders pushed third-place Missouri to four games Saturday, surprising the Tigers with a 33-31 win in game one before dropping the final three games.

Junior outside hitter Kelly Johnson highlights the Texas Tech lineup. Johnson, who had 27 kills against Missouri, leads the Big 12 and ranks among the national leaders with 5.68 kills per game. She is the only player in the conference averaging over 5.00 kills per game. Johnson set the Texas Tech school record for kills in a single match with 35 against Kansas State last season. She also ranks first on the team with 27 service aces.

Other Texas Tech players to watch include senior outside hitter Angela Mooney, who averages 2.68 kills per game, and junior setter Laura Grote, who is averaging 12.25 assists per game and ranks second on the team with 17 service aces.

Nancy Todd is in her first season as the Texas Tech head coach after spending seven seasons as an assistant with the Red Raiders. Todd replaced Jeff Nelson, who left to become the head coach at San Francisco. Nelson was an assistant coach at Nebraska in 1986.

Nebraska-Texas Tech Series
Nebraska is 19-1 all-time against Texas Tech, and NU has won 14 straight against the Red Raiders. NU has also swept Texas Tech six straight times. Texas Tech is one of only six Big 12 schools that have a win over Nebraska since the conference was created in 1996. The Red Raiders defeated NU in five games in Lubbock Oct. 26, 1996.

The Last Time We Met
Senior outside hitter Anna Schrad hammered 12 kills to go with a match-high 11 digs Sept. 27 before a crowd of 4,062 at the NU Coliseum, as No. 7 Nebraska swept Texas Tech 30-18, 30-27, 30-17. The Huskers overcame a six-point deficit in the second game to win in three games for the sixth straight time against the Red Raiders.

Nebraska hit .362 for the match. Junior outside hitter Jennifer Saleaumua was the most-efficient Husker, swinging at a .476 clip with 12 kills on 21 chances. Freshman middle blocker Christina Houghtelling had eight kills and hit .462 to go with a match-high four block assists.

Freshman libero Amanda McCormick made her debut at the NU Coliseum in the win over Texas Tech. McCormick played in three matches to start the season before suffering an injury to her left elbow. She returned Wednesday to play in one game against Iowa State. In two games against Texas Tech, McCormick recorded eight digs.

For the Red Raiders, freshman outside hitter Kiley Lyons had 10 kills and 10 digs, but she hit just .036. Junior outside hitter Kelly Johnson added nine kills and three service aces. Nebraska held Texas Tech to .105 hitting.

Coming Up ...
The Huskers will face Oklahoma at 7 p.m. Saturday and No. 13 Northern Iowa at 5 p.m. Sunday at the NU Coliseum. Oklahoma is 9-13 overall and 1-9 in the Big 12, with their lone league win coming at Baylor in five games Oct. 1. The Panthers are 18-3 overall and 10-1 in the Missouri Valley Conference. UNI spent most of the season ranked in the top 10 of the USA Today/AVCA Coaches poll, but fell to 13th after suffering a four-game loss at unranked Southwest Missouri State.

Rank and File
Nebraska is ranked 11th for the second straight week in the Oct. 27 USA Today/AVCA Coaches poll. NU fell to No. 11 Oct. 20 after suffering back-to-back losses to eighth-ranked Kansas State and No. 24 Missouri. The ranking is the Huskers’ lowest since 1999, when they were voted No. 11 in the final poll of the season.

Nebraska is one of two teams that have been ranked in the USA Today/AVCA Coaches poll for all 291 weeks of its existence. The Huskers have been ranked in the top 10 for 260 of the 291 weeks, which ranks second behind Stanford’s 272. Nebraska has spent 38 weeks in the top spot, and its most recent No. 1 ranking was Sept. 24, 2001.

Freshman Phenoms
While making an impact on the court, Nebraska freshmen Dani Busboom and Amanda McCormick are climbing the Husker freshman charts. Busboom, a setter in NU’s 6-2 offense, has totaled 386 assists, which ranks second all-time behind Lindsay Wischmeier’s 724 in 1999.

Busboom also leads the team with 29 service aces, which ranks fifth all-time among NU freshmen. She needs just seven more aces to break the record of 36 held by Maria Hedbeck (1993) and Kim Tonniges (1991). If Busboom continues at her current pace (0.41 service aces per game) and NU plays a minimum of 30 games (10 remaining regular-season matches), she will finish the season with 41 service aces. Busboom currently ranks second in the Big 12 with 0.50 aces per game against league teams.

McCormick, who was sidelined for much of the season with an elbow injury, has played in just 21 games but has been in the lineup as NU’s libero in 10 of the past 11 games. She is averaging 3.24 digs per game, which ranks second all-time on the freshman charts behind Maria Hedbeck’s 3.45 digs-per-game average in 1993. McCormick recorded a career-high 31 digs in her first career start Nov. 8 against Missouri, the third-highest total in school history and the most by a Big 12 player this season.

Elmer Emerging as All-America Candidate
Second-year starter Melissa Elmer is one of the Big 12’s best middle blockers and the Huskers’ top candidate for All-America honors. Elmer leads the Big 12 with 1.65 blocks per game and ranks eighth in the league with a .324 hitting percentage. She is hitting .332 in Big 12 matches, which ranks fifth in the conference. Elmer also ranks second on the team with 26 service aces.

Elmer has been at her best in big matches, and she leads Nebraska in matches against ranked teams in kills per game (3.35), hitting percentage (.394), service aces per game (0.35) and blocks per game (1.24)

Elmer is one of just two middle blockers to have earned Big 12 Player-of-the-Week honors in 2003. She won the award Oct. 14 for her career performances against Kansas Oct. 8 and Kansas State Oct. 11. Elmer had a career-high 15 blocks at Kansas, the highest number of blocks by any player in the Big 12 Conference this season. The total ranks third all-time on the NU single-match performance charts behind former All-Americans Amber Holmquist (16, 2000) and Karen Dahlgren (18, 1984) and is also the highest by a Husker in the rally-scoring era.  Against KSU, Elmer posted a career-high 19 kills, seven more than any other player involved in the match.

Saleaumua Does Everything for NU
NU Coach John Cook has labeled Jennifer Saleaumua the Huskers’ top all-around player, and the sophomore outside hitter is proving why during Big 12 Conference play. In league matches, Saleuamua has quietly taken over the team lead in kills per game (3.40) and digs per game (4.03), which ranks third in the conference. Saleaumua leads NU with nine double-doubles, and she is tied for fourth on the team with 18 service aces.

Saleaumua posted a career-best 23 digs against Kansas State Oct. 11, then bettered the mark with 27 digs against Missouri Oct. 15, which is the second-highest total by a Big 12 player this season.

Offensively, Saleaumua has posted double-figure kill totals in 12 of her last 13 matches after reaching the mark just once in NU’s first six contests. She tallied a then-career-best 17 kills Sept. 17 to help Nebraska defeat Texas A&M in a come-from-behind victory. Oct. 8 at KU, Saleaumua recorded 19 kills on a .340 hitting percentage.

Super Servers
Through 20 matches, Nebraska has compiled 141 service aces to its opponents’ 59 after amassing 169 in 33 matches last season. NU’s 2003 average of 1.99 service aces per game ranks second in the Big 12. In conference matches, the Huskers lead the Big 12 with 2.12 service aces per game. Nine Huskers own a service ace, and six have at least 15. Freshman setter Dani Busboom leads NU with 29 service aces and ranks second in the Big 12 with 0.50 per game in league matches. Sophomore middle blocker Melissa Elmer is second on the team with 26 aces, and sophomore setter Michelle Lynch has 22.

Nebraska tied the 13-year-old school record for service aces in a three-game match with 16 at Texas Sept. 20. Lynch led the effort with five aces, while sophomore outside hitter Jennifer Saleaumua and freshman middle blocker Christina Houghtelling each had four.

Fight To the Finish
Nebraska grew accustomed to quick matches last season while winning 28 of its 33 matches in three games. NU dropped just two games during the Big 12 season, and the Huskers played just four matches that lasted longer than two hours. NU did not play a five-game match last year, and it played just four games over the minimum.

In 2003, the nights have been longer, as a young Husker squad continues to improve against a tough schedule. Nebraska has already played four five-game matches after playing just one during the past two seasons. Seven of NU’s matches have lasted longer than two hours, and four have reached the 2-hour, 30-minute mark. The Huskers’ match with Missouri Oct. 15 lasted two hours and 50 minutes, NU’s longest contest in 152 matches. Nebraska’s 3-2 win over Wisconsin in the 1998 NCAA regional finals lasted two hours and 58 minutes.

Nebraska is 4-3 in extra-game matches, falling to No. 5 Georgia Tech, No. 12 Kansas State and Missouri in five, but defeating Texas A&M in five games. NU also defeated Kansas, Santa Clara and Illinois State in four.

Block Party
Nebraska entered its Oct. 8 match against Kansas averaging 2.94 blocks per game after posting at least 3.17 blocks per game in the previous three seasons. However, the Huskers totaled a season-high 22 team blocks against Kansas, which is the best mark by a Big 12 team this season. The total was the most by a Husker team in 83 matches. NU had 23 team blocks against Hawaii in the 2000 NCAA semifinals Dec. 14. Nebraska followed the KU performance with a solid 14 blocks against Kansas State Oct. 11, and NU ranked ninth in the Oct. 19 NCAA statistics. NU has not fallen below 3.00 blocks per game since the KSU match.

Although Nebraska’s blocking numbers are somewhat down in 2003, NU still leads the Big 12. Sophomore middle blocker Melissa Elmer, who ranked second in the Big 12 behind former NU All-American Amber Holmquist in blocks per game last season, leads NU and ranks first in the Big 12 and fifth nationally with 1.65 stops per game. Elmer had a career-high 16 blocks against Kansas.

Cook’s Winning Ways
Nebraska Coach John Cook has been amazingly successful during his four seasons at the helm, posting a 113-7 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. Cook has lost just two Big 12 Conference matches, going 69-2 and winning three league titles.

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.