No. 1 Nebraska Wins AVCA/NACWAA Showcase

Omaha - No. 1 Nebraska (2-0) claimed the AVCA/NACWAA College Volleyball Showcase title by sweeping No. 3 and defending  national champion Stanford (1-1) 30-23, 31-29, 33-31 in front of a tournament-record crowd of 10,576 Saturday night at the Qwest Center OMAHA. Nebraska picked up its second NACWAA title in school history in front of the 11th-largest crowd ever to watch an NCAA Division I volleyball match.

Christina Houghtelling powered the Huskers to the tournament title with 15 kills, including nine kills on .750 hitting in Nebraska's opening-game victory against the Cardinal.  She added seven digs and five blocks on the night. Houghtelling's championship game performance earned her tournament MVP honors, while Husker All-American Melissa Elmer also claimed a spot on the all-tournament team. The senior captain led the Huskers with 10 blocks to go along with eight assists against Stanford.

NU freshman Jordan Larson also produced a powerful performance in the championship match.  The Hooper, Neb., native produced a double-double by pounding 15 kills on .419 hitting, while adding 12 digs to go along with six blocks, as the Huskers picked up their first-ever win over a defending national champion in volleyball.

Nebraska Head Coach John Cook said he hoped the Huskers' season-opening tournament win against an elite field would set the tone for the rest of NU's season.

"This is great. It’s a great championship to win, just like any tournament. We know that it’s a long season and we’ve got to continue to get better, and I already saw how much the teams got better after just one day," Cook said. "For this weekend, this tournament, we showed we’re the best, and we’re really proud of that. I think it will give us great confidence, and I think the other thing is that it’s going to get Nebraska fans even more fired up."

The Huskers wasted little time getting the more than 10,000 Nebraska fans fired up on Saturday night. Trailing 18-17 in the first game, NU erupted for a 4-0 run, before finishing off the Cardinal with five unanswered points to claim game one, 30-23.

Houghtelling dominated the action in the first game, smashing nine kills. Although Stanford found a way to slow Houghtelling in game two, Larson, Elmer and All-American Sarah Pavan provided plenty of punch for the Huskers.  NU rallied from an 18-13 deficit in the second game to score four of the last five points for a 31-29 victory. Larson came up with two big kills, while Elmer and Pavan combined twice for blocks down the stretch.

Nebraska jumped out to a 19-14 lead in the third game before the Cardinal rallied down the stretch.  But Larson again helped the Huskers close the door on Stanford, capping Nebraska's sweep with an ace on match point in a 33-31 victory.

Stanford’s Cynthia Barboza and Kristin Richards joined Houghtelling and Larson on the all-tournament team, along with Penn State’s Sam Tortorello and Christa Harmotto, and Hawaii’s Victoria Prince.

Earlier in the evening, Penn State (1-1) defeated Hawaii (0-2) in the consolation match. 

For the second night in a row, the Showcase drew in excess of 10,000 fans (10,028 on opening night). The crowd also marked the 26th NCAA Division I attendance in excess of 10,000 fans in matches not played in conjunction with another special event such as basketball Midnight Madness. The Showcase drew a tournament record 20,604, or an average of 10,302 fans per night.

In the 11-year history of the AVCA/NACWAA College Volleyball Showcase, the host team has not won the tournament on its home floor. Nebraska broke that streak to some extent, as the Huskers served as the host for the 2005 Showcase. However, the Huskers play their home matches at the NU Coliseum in Lincoln during the regular season.

Pavan ended the night with 12 kills and three blocks, while All-American Jennifer Saleaumua managed seven kills and a team-high 17 digs. Nebraska hit .312 on the night under the direction of setters Dani Busboom and Maggie Griffin, who combined for 49 assists. The Huskers held the Cardinal to .211 hitting on the night. Nebraska held a 14.5 to 7.0 team block advantage, but the Cardinal defense was strong in the backrow with a 63-50 dig margin.

Richards led Stanford with a double-double on 13 kills and 10 digs. Foluke Akinradewo hammered 12 kills with four blocks in the loss, while Barboza nailed 12 kills and eight digs. Bryn Kehoe notched 50 assists, 12 digs and three blocks. Franci Girard turned in 10 kills on a .353 hitting percentage, and Courtney Schultz had a team-high 15 digs.

Houghtelling tallied three early kills and block assist in game one as Nebraska took a 5-2 lead. After Houghtelling recorded her fourth kill to give NU a 6-3 lead, Stanford responded with a 3-0 run as Girard slammed two kills to tie the game. Pavan and Elmer knocked down consecutive kills, but Nji Nnamani and Richards hit on back-to-back kills to knot the game again at 8-8.

Elmer sliced a kill before a Stanford attack error gave the Huskers a 10-8 margin. The Cardinal tied the game at 11, as Nnamani turned in a kill followed by a Stanford block from Richards and Akinradewo. The Cardinal took its first lead at 14-13 as Barboza hammered a kill and Pavan fired long. Nebraska regained the lead, 16-15, as Elmer and Saleaumua combined for a block after a Cardinal attack error.

Akinradewo blasted a kill through the Husker block to give Stanford an 18-17 lead after a Richards kill. Saleaumua provided the Huskers with consecutive kills, the second coming on an overpass hammer, to give Nebraska a 19-18 lead that was increased to 20-18 after a Cardinal attack went wide.

Houghtelling added to NU's 4-0 run with a kill to extend the lead to 21-18. Following a Houghtelling kill and an Amanda Gates overpass kill, the Huskers stretched their edge to 23-19, Stanford called its second timeout of the first game and cut the lead to 23-22 on kills on consecutive kills by Richards, Barboza and Akinradewo to trim NU's lead back to just one at 23-22.

Larson and Houghtelling ended Stanford's run with kills to create a 25-22 NU cushion, before a Larson kill, a block by Pavan and Elmer and a rally-ending kill by Pavan pumped the Husker lead to 28-23. Elmer and Larson joined forces on a block to set up game point, before Elmer smashed the game-winner to send the more than 10,000 Husker fans who had risen to their feet into a frenzy with a 30-23 win.. Houghtelling led NU with nine kills in game one, while Pavan, Larson and Elmer each added three kills for the Huskers. Nebraska hit .395 in the opening game and held Stanford to .182 hitting . Richards posted four kills on nine errorless attacks for the Cardinal in game one.

The Huskers picked up the first two-point advantage of game two as Saleaumua slammed kills followed by a block from Houghtelling and Gates for a 7-5 lead.

Stanford answered with consecutive points from Nnamani and Richards to tie the score at 7-7, before Larson and Elmer smashed successive kills to lift the Huskers to 9-7 lead.

The Cardinal regrouped again with three straight points to claim a 10-9 edge and pushed the lead to 15-11 before a timeout. Stanford's lead grew to five points at 18-13 lead after a Husker ball-handling error, but Nebraska burst back into the game with a pair of Houghtelling kills, a kill from Pavan and a pair of Stanford attack errors to tie the score at 18 and force a Stanford timeout.

Larson notched back-to-back kills to give the Huskers a 20-19 lead, but Stanford fought back to reclaim the lead 22-21. Game two see-sawed back and forth with the Cardinal appearing to be poised to tie the match with a 28-27 lead in game two. But Nebraska used its final timeout well and turned the tide on Stanford. Larson sparked the Huskers with a kill, before the big block of Elmer and Pavan gave Nebraska chance at game point leading 29-28.

Richards saved the game point with a kill to knot the score at 29. After Larson gave Nebraska its second game point at 30-29, the combination of Elmer and Pavan won a joust at the net on a loose ball that fell on the Cardinal side of the net to give Nebraska a 31-29 game two victory.

Larson ended game two with seven kills on 13 swings, while Elmer added five kills. Nebraska hit just .250 in game two, but held Stanford to a .158 clip, led by Girard's five kills.

The Huskers bolted out to a 6-2 lead in game three by scoring four points on Cardinal miscues, as Stanford was forced to take an early timeout.

A kill and an ace from Richards brought Stanford back from an 8-3 deficit to help close within 8-6, before a Houghtelling kill, followed by a block solo from Larson and a combined block from Gates and Houghtelling pushed NU's lead back to five points at 12-7.

Nebraska extended the lead to six points at 23-17, before Nnamani hammered three consecutive kills to keep Stanford's hopes alive in the third game. After a Nebraska timeout, Richards added a fourth consecutive point with a kill, and the Huskers committed an attack error to pull the Cardinal within one at 24-23.

Pavan managed to slow the Cardinal run with a kill, but Stanford knotted the score at 25 on a triple block from Kehoe, Richards and Akinradewo. Houghtelling and Larson again came up big in the clutch for the Huskers, slamming consecutive kills to give NU a chance at match point at 29-27.

The Cardinal staved off elimination with kills from Girard and Barboza to tie the score, before Larson pounded a cross-court kill for the Huskers' second match point at 30-29. Barboza again tied the score with a kill, before NU forced a third match point at 31-30 after a triple block from Houghtelling, Elmer and Larson.

Houghtelling hit long on the next play to tie the score at 31, but Pavan set up Nebraska's fourth match point with a kill, and Larson ended the drama with a service ace to put an exclamation on her successful career-opening tournament and the Husker title. Larson tallied five kills and four blocks in the third game, as the Huskers hit .304. Pavan added seven kills in the final game. Richards paced the Cardinal in game three with seven kills, while Barboza added six kills.

NOTES
- Nebraska’s Jennifer Saleaumua needs four kills to reach 1,000-career kills.

- Nebraska closed the gap in the all-time series with Stanford, but the Cardinal still leads the all-time series 7-4. Stanford won the previous meeting in three games on Dec. 13, 2001.

- Nebraska snapped Stanford’s 16-match win streak dating back to last season. The Cardinal ended 2004 with a 15-match win streak en route to claiming the NCAA title.

- Nebraska defeated the defending national champion for the first time in school history

- Nebraska entered the tournament as the preseason favorite in the CSTV/AVCA Division I Coaches Top 25 Preseason Poll with 35 first place votes. Stanford was ranked third in the poll with eight first-place votes. The Cardinal has been ranked among the top 10 in each of the coaches’ preseason polls since 1982.

- All four matches of the AVCA/NACWAA College Volleyball Showcase were televised live on CSTV.

- The first day of the event drew a tournament-record crowd of 10,028. The previous tournament attendance record was 9,345 fans as Hawaii hosted Southern California on Aug. 23, 2003. The match attendance also ranked as the largest crowd for a women’s athletic event in Omaha, until tonight's championship match drew 10,576.

- Overall, Nebraska is 6-4 in the Showcase event and claimed its second event title. The Huskers won the event in 2001. Three of the losses were to the top-ranked team at the time of the match.

- Nebraska has now defeated two top five teams to start the season. Entering the 2005 season, the Husker had not defeated a top-five opponent since 2001.

- Stanford has claimed either first or second all four times the team has competed in the Showcase, including two championships.

AVCA/NACWAA College Volleyball Showcase
Post-Match Quotes

Nebraska Head Coach John Cook
Opening Statement: "I was informed that this is the first time in history that a host school has ever won this tournament, and now I understand why because when you have a crowd like this, the expectations and the level of competition, you have to play really well. I’m really proud of our team for living up to the expectations and giving these fans their money’s worth. Also, I’m so impressed with these three teams that are here as well. College volleyball is getting really good."

On going 2-0 in the tournament: "This is great. It’s a great championship to win, just like any tournament. We know that it’s a long season and we’ve got to continue to get better, and I already saw how much the teams got better after just one day. For this weekend, this tournament, we showed we’re the best, and we’re really proud of that. I think it will give us great confidence and I think the other thing is that it’s going to get Nebraska fans even more fired up."

On how his team performed this weekend: "If you’d have told me we were going to win 3-0, 3-0, I would have bet my house on it that we wouldn’t. I think our team did a good job. They worked really hard and I think they expect to play like this. The thing that worried me the most this weekend was the two-setter system. I had no idea how this would go and for having so many people coming in and out, they did a tremendous job of managing it."

On the two-setter system: "(The number of attacking options is) one of the reasons we’re running the two-setter system. If somebody’s not going well or they’re shutting somebody down, you have somebody else you can go to, so it makes us hard to defend. The setters did a tremendous job tonight of making adjustments to counter whatever Stanford was trying to do to us. That’s the beauty of having experienced setters."

On what the team can take away from the two matches: "One of the things we talked about before this match was one of our goals of ?one team.’ These are the type of matches and tournaments that help forge their personality and how they’re going to respond to great competition. You never know, as a coach, how it’s going to go, but obviously we took some big steps this weekend. You don’t win close games unless you’re playing as one team like we did tonight."

On the play of the freshmen this weekend: "I think this is the best freshman class I’ve ever been a part of. They just started school this week and to play in front of 10,000 people, something 99 percent of college players never experience, and these guys went out and played against the top-five teams in the country. They’re a special group and they proved it."

Jordan Larson
On stepping up her play in game two: "I remember coming out after the timeout and Coach Cook said ?drive through the ball’ and ?keep driving’. I kept that in the back of my mind. I felt like I needed to bring more to the team."

Christina Houghtelling
On her quick start to the match: "(Dani) Busboom and I really connected well. I just wanted to come out strong and I know the whole team wanted to get an early lead. I just wanted to go out and give it all I’ve got and swing hard. That’s all you can do."

Melissa Elmer
On the significance of this weekend: "I don’t think anyone expected us to come out 3-0 in two matches. It gives us confidence and definitely lays the foundation for the rest of the season. We know how well we can play and this just drives us to get better."

Stanford Head Coach John Dunning
On the increased hitting percentage between games two and three: "(Nebraska) is a hard team to play against. They have six really big blockers, and they are going to make a lot of teams hit (a low) hitting percentage. We just hope to learn from what we experienced tonight and do a little better next time we see them down the road. Tonight it was just determination and getting to know them a little bit that made the hitting percentage go up."

"We looked lifeless at the start of the game. We looked like we were dead in the water. A sailboat with no wind is not a pretty picture. We fought, which is great. We found out about ourselves."

On where Stanford and Nebraska will be in three months: "I think they’re really good. They are fun to watch, and I say they have a great chance to be in the Final Four. They have a lot of nice pieces that fit in the puzzle. For us, that’s where we hope to be. I think we showed tonight we’re not too far behind."

Kristin Richards
On how Stanford stacked up before the game: "We didn’t doubt ourselves, that’s for sure. We’re a fighting team, and we did a good job of that tonight. Nebraska is a very good competitor, a great team with a big block. We did a fantastic job of figuring out where we are with fighting ability. That was exciting to see. We have a lot of potential. Starting with these two teams (Penn State and Nebraska) is a big risk in a way, and it can be a shot to the confidence. It’s a chance to show what you’re made of. We’re going to be really good, and I’m excited about our season. We played some great teams this weekend. It’s fun to see where we are."

STAN vs NU (Aug 27, 2005)

• Box Score

Volleyball Box Score

Volleyball Box Score Nebraska Volleyball STAN vs NU (Aug 27, 2005 at Omaha, NE)

STAN | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN ## Name GP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Barboza, Cynthia.... 3| 12 10 39 .051| 0| 0 2| 1| 8| 1 0 0| 0 4 Kehoe, Bryn......... 3| 1 0 3 .333| 50| 0 0| 0| 12| 0 3 0| 0 5 Nnamani, Nji........ 3| 9 3 22 .273| 2| 0 0| 0| 1| 0 0 0| 0 10 Richards, Kristen... 3| 13 5 34 .235| 0| 1 0| 0| 10| 1 1 0| 0 11 Fishburn, Jessica... 3| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 6| 0 0 0| 0 16 Akinradewo, Foluke.. 3| 12 5 30 .233| 0| 0 0| 0| 1| 0 4 0| 0 2 Goldhahn, Katie..... 3| 1 0 2 .500| 5| 0 1| 0| 7| 0 0 0| 0 6 Girard, Franci...... 3| 10 4 17 .353| 0| 0 0| 0| 3| 1 0 0| 0 14 Schultz, Courtney... 3| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 1| 0| 15| 0 0 0| 0 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Totals.............. 3| 58 27 147 .211| 57| 1 4| 1| 63| 3 8 0| 0

TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 7.0 Game K E TA Pct 1 17 9 44 .182 GAME SCORES 1 2 3 TEAM RECORDS 2 18 9 57 .158 STAN................ (0) 23 29 31 1-1 3 23 9 46 .304 NU.................. (3) 30 31 33 2-0

NU | ATTACK |SET| SERVE |SRV|DEF| BLOCK |GEN ## Name GP| K E TA PCT| A| SA SE| RE|DIG|BS BA BE|BHE ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 Houghtelling, Chris. 3| 15 3 32 .375| 1| 0 1| 0| 7| 0 5 0| 0 9 Pavan, Sarah........ 3| 12 5 30 .233| 1| 0 3| 0| 3| 0 3 1| 0 10 Larson, Jordan...... 3| 15 2 31 .419| 0| 1 2| 0| 12| 2 4 0| 0 17 Gates, Amanda....... 3| 1 2 8 -.125| 0| 0 0| 0| 0| 0 2 0| 0 18 Busboom, Dani....... 3| 1 0 1 1.000| 25| 0 1| 0| 4| 0 0 0| 0 26 Saleaumua, Jennifer. 3| 7 1 25 .240| 3| 0 0| 1| 17| 0 1 0| 0 1 Griffin, Maggie..... 3| 0 1 1-1.000| 24| 0 0| 0| 3| 0 0 0| 0 5 Schwartz, Rachel.... 3| 0 0 0 .000| 0| 0 0| 0| 1| 0 0 0| 0 8 Elmer, Melissa...... 3| 8 1 13 .538| 1| 0 0| 0| 3| 0 10 0| 0 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Totals.............. 3| 59 15 141 .312| 55| 1 7| 1| 50| 2 25 1| 0

TEAM ATTACK PER GAME TOTAL TEAM BLOCKS: 14.5 Game K E TA Pct 1 21 4 43 .395 Site: Omaha, NE (Qwest Center) 2 19 6 52 .250 Date: Aug 27, 2005 Attend: 10576 Time: 1:51 3 19 5 46 .304 Referees: Kathy Ferraraccio, Donna Carter