Huskers Visit No. 25 Minnesota Wednesday

The No. 14 Nebraska volleyball team begins a four-match road stretch with a 6:30 p.m. match at Minnesota on Wednesday on BTN. Nebraska is coming off a 3-1 loss to No. 15 Illinois at the Devaney Center on Saturday. That followed a Husker sweep against Northwestern in Lincoln last Wednesday. The Huskers (11-6, 5-3 Big Ten) have split their Big Ten matches each of the last three weeks, winning the first and dropping the second each week. Minnesota (13-6, 3-5 Big Ten) has swept or been swept in each of its past six matches. The Golden Gophers were swept twice in a home-and-home with Wisconsin last week. All five of Minnesota’s conference losses are to teams currently in the AVCA Coaches Poll.

Media Information
Wednesday’s match will be televised on Big Ten Network and streamed online at BTN2GO. Fans can also listen to the action with John Baylor and Lindsay Peterson on the 25-station Husker Sports Network, including B107.3 FM in Lincoln and The Wolf 93.3 FM in Omaha. Fans inside and outside the state of Nebraska will also be able to catch the live audio feed on Huskers.com for free. Live stats will be available at Huskers.com as well.

Series History
The Huskers lead the all-time series 31-5 and took both matches last season. Nebraska won a five-set thriller in Minneapolis on Nov. 10 (25-22, 15-25, 27-25, 15-25, 15-11). The Huskers swept Minnesota 3-0 in Lincoln on Oct. 4 (25-22, 25-19, 25-19). Minnesota last beat Nebraska on Nov. 16, 2012, 3-2 (25-12, 15-25, 22-25, 25-19, 21-19). The Huskers have won 17 of the last 18 meetings dating back to 1980.

Last Time Out
The No. 13 Nebraska volleyball team (11-6, 5-3 Big Ten) fell to No. 15 Illinois (14-5, 6-2 Big Ten) at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Saturday afternoon, 3-1 (23-25, 25-21, 25-27, 21-25). Alicia Ostrander had a career-high 19 kills to lead the Huskers. Kadie Rolfzen had 12 kills, and Amber Rolfzen had 11 kills and 13 digs. Cecilia Hall had six kills and eight blocks, while Meghan Haggerty had six kills and five blocks. Mary Pollmiller added six kills with her 44 set assists. Justine Wong-Orantes had 22 digs. Illinois’ Morganne Criswell had a season-high 21 kills, while Jocelynn Birks, the Big Ten leader in kills per set in conference play, had 19. Alexis Viliunas had 56 assists. Illinois narrowly outhit Nebraska .228 to .224. Both teams had 14 blocks and 68 digs.

Up Next
The Huskers are off until Sunday when they are on the road at No. 5 Wisconsin for a 4 p.m. match on ESPN2.

Noting the Huskers
• The Huskers will face two more ranked foes this week in No. 25 Minnesota and No. 5 Wisconsin. Seven of the Huskers’ first 19 matches will have come against opponents ranked at the time of the match. After Sunday at Wisconsin, the Huskers will have faced the current Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 5 teams in the AVCA Coaches Poll.
• Nebraska ranks second in the Big Ten and 16th nationally with 2.89 blocks per set. The Huskers had a season-high 18 against Ohio State on Oct. 4, matching the most since Sept. 11, 2010 when NU had 19 blocks against Illinois. Meghan Haggerty is fourth in the Big Ten with 1.28 blocks per set. The Huskers have outblocked or matched their opponent in blocks in nine straight matches.
• The Huskers are third in the Big Ten in digs with 14.64 per set. The Huskers are 11-1 when outdigging their opponents and 0-3 when getting outdug.
• Kadie Rolfzen leads the Huskers with 3.49 kills per set and ranks sixth in the Big Ten. The 2013 third-team AVCA All-American has four of Nebraska’s seven double-doubles this year and has 15 or more kills seven times this season.
• Alicia Ostrander is second on the team with 3.12 kills per set and is averaging 3.33 kills per set in Big Ten play. Ostrander has double-digit kills in eight of the last nine matches dating back to the Texas match on Sept. 20. Last week, she had a career-high 19 kills against Illinois and hit a career-best .440 with 12 kills against Northwestern. Over the last two weeks, she is averaging a team-best 3.93 kills per set.
• Justine Wong-Orantes leads the Big Red in digs with 3.92 per set and ranks ninth in the conference. She had a career-high 29 digs against No. 2 Texas on Sept. 20, the most by a Husker since Kayla Banwarth’s 32 against Baylor on Nov. 18, 2009.
• Mary Pollmiller, the Huskers’ lone senior, has 622 set assists for 10.20 per set. She also adds a defensive presence at the net with 46 blocks to rank second on the team.
• The Huskers are 7-1 in matches played on Monday through Friday this season, while they are 4-5 in matches on Saturday or Sunday.
• Nebraska is 5-1 away from the Devaney Center this season, the lone loss coming on the last road trip at Michigan on Sunday, Oct. 12.
• The Huskers are 229-0 when hitting .300 or better under John Cook.
• Nebraska is 373-16 when winning the first set under Cook.
• John Cook is 139-41 (.772) against ranked opponents at Nebraska. Just under one-third of Cook’s total victories at Nebraska (424) have come against ranked teams.
• Nebraska volleyball leads the nation with 212 consecutive sellouts, the longest sellout streak in the history of NCAA women’s athletics. NU owns a 194-18 record during the streak.

Scouting Minnesota
No. 15 Minnesota enters the week with a 13-6 overall record and 3-5 record in the Big Ten, though all five losses are to teams ranked in the top 20 of the AVCA Coaches Poll. Daly Santana leads the Gophers with 4.14 kills per set and ranks second in the Big Ten. She is first in the conference in points per set with 4.80, as she also ranks third in service aces with 0.41 per set. The Gophers are the only team in the Big Ten with better block numbers than the Huskers. Minnesota leads all Big Ten teams with 195 blocks this season for an average of 2.95 per set, which ranks 12th nationally. Paige Tapp (1.38 per set) and her twin Hannah Tapp (1.31 per set) rank second and third in the Big Ten, respectively.