Huskers Battle BYU in Regional Final

After stunning third-seeded Washington on Friday night, the 14th-seeded Nebraska volleyball team will face BYU in Saturday’s Regional Final at 10:30 p.m. (CT) at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle. The match will air on ESPNU.

The Huskers and Cougars are the only two teams outside the top eight national seeds to reach the Elite Eight. A spot in next week’s National Semifinals in Oklahoma City is on the line. The Huskers have appeared in three straight regional finals now, but NU’s last trip to the NCAA Semifinals was in 2008.

Nebraska (23-9) put together one of its best performances of the season on Friday in knocking off the Huskies, who had won 34 straight home matches at the Alaska Airlines Arena until Friday. Meanwhile, BYU earned its way to the Elite Eight by upsetting No. 11 Arizona, 3-1, last weekend and No. 6 Florida State, 3-1, on Friday.

Media Information
ESPNU will broadcast Saturday’s match. Sam Gore and Holly McPeak will be on the broadcast. Streams will also be available at WatchESPN.com. Fans can listen to the action with John Baylor and Diane Mendenhall on the 25-station Husker Sports Network, including B107.3 FM in Lincoln and 93.3 FM in Omaha. Fans inside and outside the state will also be able to catch the live audio feed on Huskers.com for free.

Series History
Nebraska is 7-2 all-time against BYU. The last meeting was in 2010, a 3-1 win for the Big Red in Provo, Utah at the BYU Nike Invitational. The Cougars last defeated the Huskers

Last Time Out
The Nebraska volleyball team stunned third-seeded Washington in a Sweet 16 matchup on Friday, 3-1 (20-25, 25-20, 25-22, 29-27) to snap UW’s 34-match home win streak and advance to the Seattle Regional Final.

Cecilia Hall had a career-high 14 kills on 17 swings with no errors for a postseason school record .824 hitting percentage. Four different Huskers had at least 12 kills. Kadie Rolfzen had 14 kills and 16 digs, Amber Rolfzen had 13 kills and seven digs, and Kelsey Fien had 12 kills. Mary Pollmiller tacked on nine kills with 52 assists and 12 digs, falling one kill shy of a triple-double. Meghan Haggerty had six kills and five blocks with no hitting errors, as the middles combined for 20 kills and no errors on the night.

“Our team just really did a great job with the game plan,” Head Coach John Cook said. “I thought at the end we handled the crowd really well. It was a tremendous effort by our team against a great opponent, especially on their home court. It was a huge effort by our team.”

Krista Vansant had 15 kills and hit .273 to lead Washington (31-3), both below her season averages. The reigning AVCA National Player of the Year was held in check largely due to the defensive effort of Amber Rolfzen. Vansant had no kills in the second set and well into the third set, as the Huskers turned the momentum in the match.

NU outhit UW .293 to .235 and won the digs battle, 70-62. After the first set, the Huskers hit .331 after the first set. The Huskies did post a 13-7 block edge, and NU committed a season-high 14 service errors to just seven for UW. But Nebraska outkilled Washington 70-53, a season high for kills in a match this season.

“This team’s been getting better and better as the season goes on,” Cook said. “We played really well last week and we’ve been training really well. I expected us to play great tonight, and I told them that yesterday at practice - with the effort they put in and their focus and how hard they worked, they should expect to have a great effort tonight. And they did.”

Noting the Huskers
• Sophomore All-Big Ten selection Kadie Rolfzen leads the Huskers with 395 kills (3.56 per set). The 2013 third-team AVCA All-American has 15 or more kills 13 times this season. Rolfzen is also second on the team in digs with 2.71 per set and has 11 double-doubles this season, including in every NCAA Tournament match. Rolfzen is averaging 3.5 kills and 3.5 digs per set in the NCAA Tournament.
• Junior outside hitter Kelsey Fien is second on the team in kills with 277 (3.22 per set) and earned All-Big Ten honors for the first time in her career this season. Fien’s breakout year included a .303 hitting percentage in Big Ten play, ranking third among all B1G outside hitters. Fien had double-digit kills in each of the final eight regular-season matches and put down 4.28 kills per set in that span. She had a career-high 19 kills against Utah in the NCAA second round.
• Nebraska ranks first in the Big Ten and 10th nationally in blocks per set with 2.92, the most since 3.0 in 2010. The Huskers posted a season-high 19.5 blocks against Hofstra in the NCAA Tournament First Round, missing the postseason school record for blocks in a three-set match by half a block (20 vs. Ohio State in 2000). Cecilia Hall leads the Huskers with 1.27 blocks per set, while Meghan Haggerty has the top total of 137 blocks (1.26 per set). Both Hall and Haggerty earned Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week awards this season. Hall’s 13 blocks vs. Michigan on Nov. 22 were the most by any Big Ten player this season.
• Sophomore outside hitter Amber Rolfzen adds 2.08 kills per set and 0.90 blocks per set. Rolfzen’s 10 blocks vs. Hofstra in the opening round tied for the most ever by a Husker in a three-set postseason match. She earned Nebraska’s second Big Ten Player of the Week honor this season on Nov. 24. Fien won the award on Nov. 10.
• Mary Pollmiller, the Huskers’ lone senior, has 1,173 set assists for 10.20 per set. Pollmiller reached the 5,000-career assist plateau on her Senior Night on Nov. 22. The Littleton, Colo. native put up 2,740 in two years at Tennessee and has 5,192 for her career to rank fourth among active Division I setters.
• Justine Wong-Orantes leads the Huskers in digs with 3.76 per set. With her team-high 432 digs this season, Wong-Orantes is set to become the first Husker in school history to lead the Big Red in digs as both a freshman and sophomore.
• The Huskers are 14-2 in matches played on Monday through Friday this season, while they are 9-7 in matches played on Saturday and Sunday.
• The Huskers are 232-0 when hitting .300 or better under John Cook.
• Nebraska is 382-16 when winning the first set under Cook.
• Cook is 143-44 (.765) against ranked opponents at Nebraska. Just under one-third of Cook’s total victories at Nebraska (436) have come against ranked teams.

Scouting BYU
BYU (28-4) has won 10 straight matches. Jennifer Hamson, a 6-7 hitter, leads the team with 3.77 kills per set. Hamson is hitting .337 on the season and had 30 kills on 63 swings yesterday in the win over Florida State. Alexa Gray adds 3.63 kills per set. Ciara Parker leads the team in digs (4.05), while Camry Willardson has a team-high 9.38 assists per set. The Cougars rank first nationally with 3.87 blocks per set and boast the top two individual blockers in the nation: Whitney Young (1.93) and Amy Boswell (1.66).