Huskers Welcome Iowa State to the Devaney Center

No. 10 Nebraska vs. No. 12 Iowa State • Saturday, Sept. 17 • Devaney Center • 8 p.m.

TV:       NET (Time Warner: SD-12/HD-112  |  DirecTV: 29  |  Dish Network: 12)

Radio:  Husker Sports Network, including B107.3 FM in Lincoln and KTWI 93.3 FM in Omaha, and on Huskers.com

Web Video:       BTN.com

Live Stats:        Huskers.com

The No. 10 Nebraska volleyball team welcomes the No. 12 Iowa State Cyclones to the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Saturday, Sept. 17 at 8 p.m., in a match that will be carried state wide on NET and will also be available on BTN.com. Fans are encouraged to "Red Out" the Devaney by wearing all red to Saturday's match.

Nebraska is fresh off a 3-0 weekend hosting Creighton, Saint Mary's and Weber State in the Ameritas Player's Challenge. Iowa State suffered its first loss of the season against Northern Iowa on Tuesday night, falling 3-0.

Saturday's match gives fans the opportunity to witness the Huskers play former Big 12 Conference foe Iowa State. The match with the Cyclones is the Huskers' annual home match at the Bob Devaney Sports Center and marks the first non-conference meeting between the two programs.

The two teams met 79 times as members of the Big Eight and Big 12 conferences, with the Huskers holding an all-time advantage of 78-1 in the series that dates back to 1975.

Fans can listen to all of the action with John Baylor and Diane Mendenhall on the 25-station Husker Sports Network, including B107.3 FM in Lincoln and Twister 93.3 FM in Omaha. Fans outside the state will also be able to catch the live audio feed for free on Huskers.com.

On Time Warner Cable in Lincoln, NET can be seen on channel 12, while NET HD is channel 112. NET is channel 29 on DirecTV and channel 12 on Dish Network.

Getting to Know the Cyclones

Location: Ames, Iowa

Enrollment: 28,682

Nickname: Cyclones

Colors: Cardinal and Gold

Head Coach: Christy Johnson-Lynch (Nebraska, '96)

Record at School: 125-67 (six years)

Overall Record: same

Asst. Coaches: Dawn Sullivan, Trudy Vande Berg
2010 Record: 20-9

2010 Big 12 Record: 13-7

2010 Postseason: NCAA First Round

2010 Final Ranking: 25th

Letterwinners R/L: 10/3

Starters R/L: 5/1+1

Series Record: Nebraska leads, 78-1

Last Meeting: NU won, 3-0 (10/30/10)

Last NU Win: (10/30/10)

Last NU Loss: (10/21/09)

Longest NU Winning Streak: 75

Current NU Winning Streak: 4

Scouting the Iowa State Cyclones

• The Cyclones are 9-1 on the season after falling to No. 15 Northern Iowa 0-3 on Tuesday night. Before the match, ISU had become the only team in Iowa State history to start its season 9-0.
• Iowa State is led by senior outside hitter Carly Jenson who is averaging 3.57 kills per set and has 125 kills so far in the 2011 season.
• The Cyclones are averaging a .261 hitting percentage, while holding opponents to an average hitting percentage of .152.
• In ISU's loss to Northern Iowa on Tuesday night, the Cyclones never hit above .111 in a set and finished the match with an .093 average. That was the team's lowest hitting percentage since hitting .089 at Nebraska last season.
• Redshirt freshman outside hitter Hannah Willms had 10 kills for the Cyclones against Northern Iowa, while Jenson tallied six of her own.
• Head Coach Christy Johnson-Lynch is in her sixth year as the head coach of the Cyclones after going 20-9 last year.
• Iowa State has totaled 72 blocks on the season, averaging 1.95 blocks per set. ISU has also tallied 643 digs and 17.38 digs per set.
• Saturday's match with the Huskers will mark the final nonconference match for Iowa State. The Cyclones take on Missouri in Ames, Iowa, on Wednesday, Sept. 21.

The Last Time Nebraska and Iowa State Met (Oct. 30, 2010)

After dropping its only Big 12 Conference match of the season at No. 10 Texas the previous match, the No. 2 Nebraska volleyball team (20-2, 12-1) responded with a 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 25-16) win over the No. 12 Iowa State Cyclones (16-5, 9-4).

"We stressed two things at practice this week, have fun and complete every point," Head Coach John Cook said after the win. "The Huskers did a great job of doing both of those tonight."

Senior Lindsey Licht led all players with 12 kills, while Hannah Werth added nine. Overall, all five Husker attackers had five or more kills with Lauren Cook and Sydney Anderson combining for 39 assists, including a match-high 24 from Cook.

Defensively, the Huskers out-dug the Cyclones 59-50 as Kayla Banwarth led all players with 17 digs while Werth (15) and Tara Mueller (10) each hit double figures. At the net, the Huskers stuffed nine attacks with Brooke Delano leading the way with six block assists.

Scouting the Huskers

• Nebraska is 6-1 in 2011 and enters Saturday night's match ranked No. 10 in the latest AVCA Coaches Poll.
• The Huskers are 6-0 this season when holding opponents below .200 hitting. Nebraska is 0-1 when opposing teams hit above .200.
• Nebraska has totaled double-digit blocks in three matches this season, including a season-high 16.5 blocks against New Mexico State.
• The Huskers tallied a season-low six errors against Albany on Sept. 3. The last time NU had six errors or less in a match was against Sacred Heart on Dec. 2, 2010.
• As of Sept. 11, the Huskers rank 24th nationally in blocks per set with 2.65. NU is 25th in hitting percentage at .273.
• Nebraska ranks second in the Big Ten in opponent hitting percentage at .104. The Huskers are fifth in hitting percentage (.273), eighth in assists (12.52), fourth in blocks (2.65), tied for ninth in kills (13.41), 12th in service aces (0.89) and eighth in digs (13.78).
• Jordan Wilberger is second in the Big Ten in blocks, averaging 1.60 per set. Hayley Thramer is third on the list with 1.57 per set, while Morgan Broekhuis comes in at eighth, averaging 1.22 per set.
• Brooke Delano has 56 kills this season and sits at eighth in the Big Ten Conference with a hitting percentage of .381.
• Lauren Cook ranks sixth in the Big Ten Conference in assists, with 10.78 per set.
• Gina Mancuso is ninth in the Big Ten Conference in kills with an average of 3.78 per set.
• Lara Dykstra is eighth in the Big Ten Conference in digs, with an average of 3.89 per set.
• Under Head Coach John Cook, the Huskers improved to 308-9 when winning the first set of the match after their sweep of Weber State on Sept. 10.
• Three Huskers have combined for four double-doubles in 2011, with Mancuso tallying three and Werth notching one of her own.

Gina Mancuso  |  2011 (3)  |  NU Career (3), All (3)

Opponent (Date)           K          A          D                      B

New Mexico State (Aug. 26)       16         0          14         2

Creighton (Sept. 8)        12         0          10         1

Saint Mary's (Sept. 9)    15         1          11         3

Hannah Werth |  2011 (1)  |  NU Career (23), All (23)

Opponent (Date)           K          A          D                      B

Colorado State (Sept. 2)            12         0          15         1

• Three Huskers average more than a block a set, including Broekhuis (1.22), Wilberger (1.60) and Thramer (1.57).
• Two Huskers average more than 3.00 kills per set, including Mancuso (3.78) and Broekhuis (3.04). Both lead NU in hitting percentage.

Tough Tests

With the visit by Iowa State this weekend, Nebraska will be taking on its second top-25 team this season.

The Huskers lost to then-No. 15 Colorado State on Sept. 2 in five sets in Fort Collins, Colo. Since that match, NU has gone 4-0.

Hot in September

Historically, the Huskers' two best months are September (291-26) and November (214-18), as they have all-time winning percentages of .918 and .922, respectively. NU has lost only five matches in September since 2004, including none from 2005-08.

After four wins so far in September, the Huskers are 114-8 under Head Coach John Cook.

With August in the bag, Nebraska is now 28-7 in August since 1989, when it played its first-ever match in the month.

Cook Reaches 500

With the Huskers' win over Albany on Sept. 3, Head Coach John Cook tallied his 500th win as a head coach.

No Place Like Nebraska

Nebraska celebrated a streak of 150 consecutive sellouts at the NU Coliseum on Sept. 8. It is the longest sellout streak across all NCAA women's athletics. The Huskers averaged 4,632 fans per home contest last season. As of Sept. 12, Nebraska ranks third in current home win streaks with 25.

Small Membership

Lara Dykstra became just the seventh true freshman to start a season opener during Head Coach John Cook's era at Nebraska. Sophomore Morgan Broekhuis was the last Husker to do so in 2010.

Dykstra Digging

Through the first seven matches of her collegiate career, freshman Lara Dykstra has totaled 105 digs and has averaged 3.89 digs per set. Her 28 digs against New Mexico State ranked ninth in Nebraska volleyball single-match performances and were the highest total by a Husker since 2009.

Thramer Makes Impact

Sophomore Hayley Thramer made her first career start at New Mexico on Aug. 27. She tabbed eight blocks against New Mexico State and three against New Mexico. She currently ranks third in the Big Ten in blocks.

Volleyball Blackshirts

Nebraska kept Albany at a .038 hitting percentage for the match, including a .075 percentage in set two and -.079 in set three. The Huskers held Creighton to a .053 hitting percentage on Sept. 8 and a Weber State to a .071 hitting percentage on Sept. 10. Nebraska is second in the Big Ten with a .104 opponent hitting percentage on the season.

Holding Their Own

The Huskers rank fifth in the Big Ten in hitting percentage (.273), eighth in assists (12.52), fourth in blocks (2.65), eighth in digs (13.78), second in opponent hitting percentage (.104), tied for ninth in kills (13.41) and 12th in aces (0.89).

Volleyball Fever

Nebraska volleyball fans will once again pack into the Bob Devaney Sports Center in 2011 for the Huskers' lone appearance at the facility on Saturday, Sept. 17 against Iowa State.

All-time, the Devaney Center holds two of the top-10 all-time attendance marks. In 2009, the Devaney Center set the NCAA record during Nebraska match against UCLA, with a crowd of 13,870. NU's match with LSU in 2008 drew 13,412 to the Devaney Center.

Map to Success

Nebraska has nine players on its 2011 roster who were Volleyball Magazine Fab 50 selections, representing the top 50 players in that year's recruiting class. Five of the Huskers' last seven recruiting classes have ranked in the top five nationally, including the 2009 class that was ranked second by Prepvolleyball.com.

Volleyball Magazine Fab 50 Members

Year       Players

2008       Allison McNeal

2009       Gina Mancuso, Hannah Werth, Hayley Thramer, Lauren Cook

2010       Morgan Broekhuis

2011       Lara Dykstra, Taylor Simpson

The Home for All-Americans

Nebraska continued its string of All-America success in 2010, as Brooke Delano, Lindsey Licht and Hannah Werth were named AVCA All-Americans. The trio upped Nebraska's NCAA-leading totals to 34 players and 70 certificates. Nebraska has had at least one All-American every season since 1983, a total of 29 straight seasons, including 35 All-America awards in Cook's 11 years at Nebraska.

AVCA All-America Certificates

No.        School     Awards

1.          Nebraska 70

2.          Stanford    65

3.          Penn State             51

4.          Hawaii     50

5.          UCLA      41

Pre-Season All-Conference Picks

The Huskers were picked to finish in a tie for second in the Big Ten preseason coaches' poll. The Huskers also had three players picked to the preseason All-Big Ten list. Unanimous selection senior Brooke Delano was joined by juniors Lauren Cook and Hannah Werth.