Huskers Clash With Penn State on BTN

The Nebraska volleyball team begins its final two weeks of the regular season with a key Big Ten matchup against No. 15 Penn State on Wednesday night at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. First serve is set for 8 p.m. on BTN and online at BTN2GO.com. Husker Sports Network will broadcast the action on HSN affiliates, including 107.3 FM in Lincoln and 105.9 FM in Omaha.

The Huskers have just two home matches remaining in the regular season. Nebraska’s senior night is set for Saturday, Nov. 26 when the Huskers take on Michigan.

The top-ranked Huskers (24-1) enter the week with a 12-match winning streak and have won 40 of their last 41 matches. Nebraska carries a 15-1 Big Ten record into the match, which is its best Big Ten record through 16 matches since joining the conference in 2011. The Huskers are one match ahead of Wisconsin (14-2) and two matches ahead of Minnesota (13-3) in the Big Ten title race. Michigan State (12-4) and Penn State (11-5) are mathematically still in the race.

Nebraska is coming off a pair of sweeps last week. The Huskers took care of Iowa last Wednesday and went on the road and did the same at Indiana on Saturday to continue their 16-match road winning streak.

Series History
• Nebraska holds a 17-10 lead in the series with Penn State. The Huskers have won three straight in the series and four of the last five dating back to 2014. Nebraska won 3-2 (22-25, 25-17, 25-23, 23-25, 15-11) at Penn State on November 4. Mikaela Foecke and Andie Malloy each had 19 kills in that match, and Nebraska held Penn State to .166 hitting, its lowest in Big Ten play this season. Nebraska is 14-3 all-time against the Nittany Lions in Lincoln, including a 25-18, 25-18, 25-22 sweep last year on Nebraska’s senior night.

Coaches
• Nebraska head coach John Cook is in his 17th season at Nebraska and 24th overall season as a head coach. Cook is 492-63 at NU and 653-136 overall.
• Russ Rose is 1,208-194 in his 38th season as head coach at Penn State.

About the Huskers
• The Huskers are ranked No. 1 in the AVCA Coaches Poll, where they spent the first six weeks of the season before falling from the top spot for two weeks. In total, Nebraska has spent 11 weeks at No. 1 this season.
• At 24-1, the Huskers are off to their best start to a season since beginning the 2008 season 25-1.
• Nebraska’s 15-1 Big Ten record is its best ever Big Ten record through 16 matches. The Huskers’ 2011 team, which went on to win the Big Ten title with a 17-3 record, began 14-1 before finishing 17-3.
• Nebraska has held nine straight opponents below .180 hitting for the second time this season. Before this season, the last time the Huskers accomplished that feat was in 2005.
• Nebraska leads the Big Ten in hitting percentage (.300) and kills (14.35 per set) and ranks third nationally in hitting percentage.
• Defensively, the Huskers boast the top opponent hitting percentage in the conference at .141 and rank fourth in the nation. The Huskers are second in the Big Ten in digs (14.46 per set) and blocks (2.88 per set).
• Nebraska’s defense in conference play has been stellar. The Huskers lead all teams in blocks (2.98 per set) and opponent hitting percentage (.147).
• Nebraska is 5-0 when losing the first set this season and is 3-0 in five-set matches.
• The Huskers are a perfect 9-0 in road matches this season including an 8-0 mark against Big Ten teams. Five of the Huskers’ eight Big Ten road matches have been against ranked teams. The Huskers have won 16 straight road matches, the longest streak since 2003-05 (26 straight), and they’ve won 23 straight matches played away from the Devaney Center.
• Nebraska’s .886 win percentage under head coach John Cook is the best by any program since Cook took over in the 2000 season.
• Since Cook became head coach at Nebraska in 2000, the Huskers have won at least 20 straight matches nine times.
• Nebraska won 28 straight matches from Oct. 30, 2015 to Sept. 28, 2016, which was the program’s longest winning streak since 2006-07.

Up Next
• The Huskers travel to Iowa for an 8 p.m. match on Saturday.

Scouting Penn State
• Penn State is 19-8 overall and 11-5 in the Big Ten after a 3-2 loss at Ohio State on Saturday night. The Nittany Lions are third in the conference in hitting percentage (.299) and second in opponent hitting percentage (.158). Simone Lee leads the conference in kills (4.23 per set), while Haleigh Washington is hitting a league-best .450.

Huskers Ranked No. 1 in AVCA Coaches Poll
• Nebraska is the unanimous No. 1 in this week’s AVCA Coaches Poll, its fifth straight week holding the top spot.
• The Huskers began the year at No. 1 in the preseason poll for the fifth time in school history (2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2015) and spent the first six weeks of the season at No. 1. The 2006 squad went wire-to-wire to win the national title. This year’s Husker team is aiming to become the first in program history to repeat as champions.
• The Huskers have been ranked No. 1 in 97 all-time polls, the most in NCAA history.
• The Huskers have been ranked in the top 10 a total of 454 times, which is the most in NCAA history.
• Nebraska has been ranked in the top 10 in the last 30 polls dating back to December of 2014.
• Nebraska has appeared in all 507 AVCA Coaches Polls since it was established in 1982. Nebraska and Stanford are the only two programs to be ranked in every poll all-time.

First-Team All-American Kadie Rolfzen Closing Out Husker Career in Style
• Senior outside hitter Kadie Rolfzen was named a first-team AVCA All-American in 2015, her third career All-America honor but first selection to the first team. Rolfzen was also a unanimous All-Big Ten selection, her third straight season on the team.
• Rolfzen leads the Huskers with 3.15 kills per set and adds 2.52 digs per set. She has 44 career double-doubles, has served a career-best 17 aces this season and is hitting .304.
• An NCAA Senior CLASS Award finalist, Rolfzen ranks seventh in school history with 1,462 career kills and is seventh in career digs with 1,167. She joins Jordan Larson as the only Huskers to rank in the top seven all-time in career kills and digs.
• Rolfzen, who was chosen to the CoSIDA Academic All-District 7 team this year, was named Big Ten Player of the Week on October 17 after posting 21 kills and 11 digs at Ohio State and nine kills and eight digs at Maryland.
• Against New Mexico on September 10, Rolfzen became the fifth Husker all-time to reach 1,000 career kills and 1,000 career digs.
• Rolfzen was named the most valuable player at the Nebraska Invite, Lobo Classic and Ameritas Players Challenge this season.
• Rolfzen was not only productive on the court in 2015, she excelled off of it. The graphic design major posted a perfect 4.0 GPA in 2015-16 to earn Big Ten Distinguished Scholar honors.

Amber Rolfzen Building on Breakout Season at Middle Blocker
• Senior Amber Rolfzen made a position switch from outside hitter to middle blocker before the 2015 season, and the switch resulted in second-team AVCA All-America honors and the Big Ten blocks title for the Papillion, Nebraska native.
• Rolfzen is averaging 2.05 kills per set and a team-high 1.39 blocks per set. Rolfzen ranks fifth in the Big Ten and 26th nationally in blocks per set. She is hitting a team-best .352.
• Rolfzen picked up a plethora of awards the week following her standout performances vs. Wisconsin and Minnesota on October 21 and 23, respectively. Rolfzen had a career-high 16 kills in both of those matches and hit .560 with nine total blocks. She was named the Sports Imports/AVCA National Player of the Week, espnW National Player of the Week and Big Ten Player of the Week.
• Rolfzen ranks seventh in school history on NU’s career block assists chart with 459. She has been named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week twice this season and five times in her career. She ranks 10th in school history in career blocks with 508.
• Rolfzen was named to the All-America Second Team and the All-Big Ten Team after posting 1.58 blocks per set in 2015, which led the Big Ten and ranked fourth nationally. Her block average was the best by a Husker since Melissa Elmer’s school-record 2.17 in 2005.
• Rolfzen was named to the NCAA Championship All-Tournament Team after 10 kills and four blocks with a .625 hitting percentage in the championship win over Texas.
• Rolfzen accumulated three Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honors in 2015 and has one so far in 2016 after 2.33 blocks per set against Purdue and Indiana.

Wong-Orantes Positioning Herself as All-Time Husker Great
• Senior libero Justine Wong-Orantes burst onto the national scene in 2015 with third-team AVCA All-America honors and the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year award.
• Wong-Orantes is averaging 4.11 digs per set this season and broke the school record for digs in a single match with 35 against Minnesota on October 23. The previous record was 34 by Maria Hedbeck in 1993.
• Wong-Orantes is Nebraska’s career leader in digs with 1,745. She surpassed Kayla Banwarth’s previous career record of 1,706 in the win at Penn State on November 4.
• Banwarth is the starting libero for the U.S. Women’s National Team, and Wong-Orantes is trending on that path. Wong-Orantes played with the U.S. Women’s National Team at the Pan American Cup over the summer, averaging 4.8 digs per set while helping the Americans to the bronze medal.
• The Cypress, California native averaged 4.55 digs per set with a total of 555 digs in 2015, the third most by a Husker in school history.

Experienced Hunter Leads Huskers as Captain Again
• Despite being in her first season as the Huskers’ starting setter last year, Kelly Hunter was picked as one of the team captains. Now a junior, Hunter is the Huskers’ lone captain as selected by head coach John Cook.
• Hunter is averaging 11.16 assists and has served a team-best 21 aces along with Annika Albrecht. Hunter ranks fourth in the Big Ten and 19th nationally in assists per set.
• Hunter has been named Big Ten Setter of the Week four times this season, giving her six career awards.
• The Papillion, Nebraska native guided the Huskers to the national title in 2015 and received AVCA All-America honorable mention. She was named to the NCAA Championship All-Tournament Team after posting 42 assists, four digs and three blocks in the championship match.
• Hunter averaged 11.64 assists per set last season and totaled 1,501, the third most in the nation. She had 10 double-doubles and was the Big Ten Setter of the Week twice.

Foecke In Rare Company
• Mikaela Foecke was the NCAA Championship Most Outstanding Player last season, becoming just the third freshman to earn the honor, after 19 kills on .385 hitting in the championship win against Texas. The other freshmen to win the award were Deja McClendon (Penn State, 2010) and Kerri Walsh (Stanford, 1996)
• This season, Foecke is averaging 2.81 kills per set and is hitting at a .306 clip, significantly outpacing her .277 average as a freshman.
• Foecke received AVCA All-America honorable mention and was a unanimous selection to the All-Big Ten Freshman team in 2015.
• Following her freshman season, Foecke was a finalist for the AAU Sullivan Award, presented annually to the top amateur athlete in the United States.

Holman Strengthens Huskers’ Middle
• Junior middle blocker Briana Holman made her first official appearance in a collegiate match since December 2014 when she took the court with the Huskers at the season-opening VERT Challenge. Holman transferred from LSU to Nebraska but did not receive her scholarship release, so she was forced to sit out the 2015 season.
• Holman is averaging 2.41 kills and 1.25 blocks per set. She is hitting .350 on the season.
• On opening weekend, Holman had an immediate impact. She was named the espnW National Player of the Week after averaging 2.57 kills and 1.43 blocks per set while hitting .571 in the wins over Florida and Texas. Holman had 10 kills and seven blocks against the Gators, and eight kills and three blocks against Texas with a .727 hitting percentage.
• Holman was a first-team AVCA All-American at LSU in 2014 with 3.94 kills and 1.47 blocks per set. She was a two-time All-SEC performer for the Tigers and represented the U.S. Collegiate National Team at the World University Games in South Korea in July 2015.

Malloy Brings Experience to Husker Roster
• Senior transfer Andie Malloy gives the Huskers more depth and experience at outside hitter. A two-time All-Big 12 performer at Baylor, Malloy earned her degree in 2015 and had one season of eligibility remaining.
• Malloy is averaging 2.49 kills per set for the Big Red. She had a season-best 19 kills at Penn State and was a member of the Lobo Classic all-tournament team in September.
• Malloy came to Nebraska after ranking second in the Big 12 in kills per set (3.89) and double-doubles (17) in 2015.