Huskers Host NCAA Tournament Opening Rounds

For the 11th straight year, the Nebraska volleyball team will open the NCAA Tournament at home, as the Huskers host the NCAA first and second rounds this weekend. The 11th-ranked Huskers, making their 33rd straight NCAA Tournament appearance, were selected as the No. 14 overall seed in the 64-team field. Nebraska will open the tournament on Friday, Dec. 5 against Hofstra. The Pride was crowned tournament champion of the Colonial Athletic Association. That match will start at either 7 p.m. or 30 minutes after the conclusion of the 4:30 p.m. match, which features the Kansas State Wildcats of the Big 12 Conference and the Utah Utes of the Pac-12 Conference. Friday’s winners will meet in the second round at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 6 to battle for a spot in the Seattle Regional on Dec. 12-13. The winner of the Lincoln bracket will take on the winner of the Washington first and second round bracket, featuring the third-seeded Huskies against New Hampshire, and Hawaii against Duke.

Tickets for the first and second rounds in Lincoln went on sale online at Huskers.com on Sunday night. All-session ticket prices are set at $34 (reserved A and B sections) and $30 (C section) and include all three matches this weekend.

Media Information
NET will broadcast Friday’s Nebraska match against Hofstra and also the second round match on Saturday should the Huskers advance. The NET broadcasts will also be streamed online for free at BTN2GO.com if your cable provider includes the Big Ten Network. All three matches this weekend will also have a free video stream at Huskers.com. Fans can also listen to the action with John Baylor and Diane Mendenhall on the 25-station Husker Sports Network, including B107.3 FM in Lincoln and 94.9 FM in Omaha on Friday. Should the Huskers advance to Saturday, the match would be carried on 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.

Series History
Nebraska will be meeting Hofstra for the second time. NU beat Hofstra 3-1 on Sept. 16, 1989. The Huskers are 82-4 all-time against Kansas State and 2-0-1 all-time against Utah.

Up Next
Friday’s winners will meet Saturday at 7 p.m. for a chance to advance to the Seattle Regional.

Noting the Huskers
• Sophomore All-Big Ten selection Kadie Rolfzen leads the Huskers with 353 kills (3.57 per set). The 2013 third-team AVCA All-American has 15 or more kills 12 times this season. Rolfzen is also second on the team in digs with 2.62 per set and has eight double-doubles this season, establishing her as one of the Big Ten’s best all-around players for the second straight season.
• Junior outside hitter Kelsey Fien is second on the team in kills with 240 (3.24 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.
• Nebraska ranked second in the Big Ten and 14th nationally with 2.92 blocks per set in the regular season, the most since 2010. Cecilia Hall led the Huskers with 1.31 blocks per set, while Meghan Haggerty had the top total of 123 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 2.11 kills per set and 0.90 blocks per set. 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 1,048 set assists for 10.17 per set to rank fourth in the Big Ten. 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 5,067 for her career to rank fourth among active Division I setters.
• Justine Wong-Orantes leads the Huskers in digs with 3.85 per set. With her team-high 397 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 12-2 in matches played on Monday through Friday this season, while they are 8-7 in matches played on Saturday and Sunday.
• The Huskers are 232-0 when hitting .300 or better under John Cook.
• Nebraska is 380-16 when winning the first set under Cook.
• Cook is 141-44 (.762) against ranked opponents at Nebraska. Just under one-third of Cook’s total victories at Nebraska (433) have come against ranked teams.

Scouting Hofstra
Hofstra won its third Colonial Athletic Association title and second in three years with a 3-2 win over Charleston on Nov. 23. The Pride will be making its eighth appearance in the NCAA Tournament and first since 2012. Hofstra earned its first win in the NCAA Tournament in 2006 with a 3-2 victory over Cornell. Kelsie Wills averages 4.26 kills per set to rank first in the CAA and 31st in the nation. Hofstra hits .255 as a team and holds opponents to .156 hitting on average, both of which ranked second in the CAA. Setter Hannah Klemm puts up 11.73 assists per set. Emily Mansur is in her first season as head coach after serving as an assistant coach last season.

Scouting Kansas State
Kansas State is led by freshman outside hitter Kylee Zumach, who set a new Wildcat freshman record for most kills in a season (406) and averages 3.59 kills per set to rank fourth in the Big 12. Zumach was the unanimous Big 12 Freshman of the Year and was an All-Big 12 first-team selection with teammate Katie Brand. A sophomore setter, Brand ranks second in the Big 12 in assists per set (11.05) and led all Big 12 setters in kills, digs and blocks. Brooke Sassin adds 2.83 kills per set, while Natali Jones posts 1.41 blocks per set with 144 total on the year. The Wildcats post 2.9 blocks per set to rank second in the Big 12. They are fifth in hitting percentage (.246) and third in opponent hitting percentage (.191). Suzie Fritz is in her 14th season as head coach.

Scouting Utah
Utah was a dominant home team, going 12-2 with wins over ranked foes Arizona State, USC, UCLA, Washington, Oregon and Colorado. The Utes were 4-10 in road matches, though, including 1-9 in Pac-12 road matches. Utah played its way into the NCAA Tournament with a 7-1 record down the stretch after losing five straight. Utah finished near the middle of the Pac-12 in almost every major category, including hitting percentage (seventh, .234) and opponent hitting percentage (seventh, .208). Chelsey Schofield leads the team in kills with 345 (3.0 per set). Shelby Dalton adds 316 (2.80 per set). Bailey Bateman (1.18 blocks per set) and Carly Trueman (1.05 blocks per set) rank among the top 10 in the Pac-12 in blocks. Beth Launiere is in her 25th season as head coach.

Home Sweet Home
Nebraska returned for its second season at the Bob Devaney Sports Center in 2014. The Huskers’ first season in the renovated Devaney Center was a historic one, and 2014 was even better.
• The Huskers will lead the nation in attendance for the second straight season. NU’s 8,266 fans per match in the regular season tops last year’s NCAA record mark of 8,175 and is nearly 2,000 more than the next closest team (Hawaii, 6,357) this season.
• Nebraska volleyball leads the nation with 217 consecutive sellouts, the longest sellout streak in the history of NCAA women’s athletics. NU owns a 199-18 record during the streak.
• In 2013, Nebraska set an NCAA record with an average attendance of 8,175 fans per match.
• NU led the nation in attendance for the first time since 1992, ending Hawaii’s 21-year reign as the national leader.
• Nebraska has ranked in the top three nationally in attendance every season since 1990 (24 straight seasons).
• The Huskers sold out every match in 2013, stretching their home sellout streak to 201 consecutive matches by season’s end, the longest sellout streak in the history of NCAA women’s athletics.
• The Devaney Center has hosted the three largest regular-season crowds in NCAA history and seven of the 10 largest.

Huskers’ Lone Senior Among the Nation’s Best
Tri-captain Mary Pollmiller is Nebraska’s lone senior in 2014. The Huskers may only have one senior, but Pollmiller is one of the nation’s top setters. She is in her second season at Nebraska after spending her first two years at Tennessee in 2011 and 2012. Pollmiller was the 2011 SEC Freshman of the Year, and she has earned honorable-mention AVCA All-America accolades twice in her career, including last season (also in 2011). Pollmiller owns 5,067 career assists, a total that ranks fourth nationally. Three of the nation’s top-four active players in career assists are Big Ten Conference setters.

Fien, Rolfzen Earn All-Big Ten; Pollmiller Honorable Mention
Kelsey Fien and Kadie Rolfzen were named to the All-Big Ten team, while Mary Pollmiller earned honorable mention and a sportsmanship award, the Big Ten Conference announced on Tuesday. Rolfzen, a sophomore outside hitter from Papillion, Neb., earns her second career spot on the All-Big Ten team. The 2013 AVCA All-American led Nebraska in kills in the regular season with 353 (3.57 per set). She upped her average to 3.62 in conference play. Rolfzen also added 2.62 digs per set to rank second on the team and establish herself as one of the top all-around players in the conference for the second straight season. Fien, a junior outside hitter from Bakersfield, Calif., is a first-time honoree after a breakout season. Fien was second on the team in kills in the regular season with 240 (3.24 per set) and was particularly strong in conference play, posting 3.39 kills per set while hitting .303, the best mark by an NU player and third among all B1G outside hitters. Pollmiller, a senior setter and captain from Littleton, Colo., earned All-Big Ten honorable mention for the second straight season in her two-year stint at Nebraska. Pollmiller ranked fourth in the conference in assists with 10.17 per set. An honorable mention AVCA All-American last season, Pollmiller also added 73 blocks (0.71 per set) in the regular season to rank fourth on the team. The Husker volleyball team has had at least two first-team all-conference honorees every year since 1982.

Huskers Extend Record Poll Streak to 477 Weeks
Nebraska has appeared in every one of the AVCA’s 477 all-time weekly polls. NU and Stanford are the only two programs to appear in every AVCA poll, dating back to its inception in 1982. Nebraska has spent a nation-leading 423 weeks in the top 10.

Challenging Schedule
The Huskers played the second most difficult schedule in the nation, according to the NCAA. The Huskers’ combined opponent winning percentage this season was .673, behind only USC. NU began its tough slate immediately by facing Stanford and Florida State on opening weekend, the Nos. 1 and 6 seeds, respectively, in the NCAA Tournament.
• Nebraska is 3-7 against ranked opponents this season.
• Of the Huskers’ 10 ranked foes this season, eight matches came against teams currently ranked in the top 10.
• The Huskers have hosted three top-three teams this season (No. 3 Stanford, No. 2 Texas and No. 3 Penn State). Nebraska is 1-2 in those matches with the lone win against Penn State.
• The Huskers played a school-record 15 regular-season matches against ranked teams last year.
• In addition to the ranked opponents, NU played 15 matches - more than half its schedule - against 2013 NCAA Tournament teams, including 12 matches against teams that advanced to the round of 16 last season.