Huskers Open B1G Play against Wolverines, Spartans

The third-ranked Nebraska volleyball team begins Big Ten play on Friday by hosting unbeaten No. 18 Michigan at 8 p.m. at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. The Huskers will then turn around and host Michigan State on Sunday at 2 p.m. The Spartans are receiving 52 points in the AVCA Coaches Poll and are one spot outside the top 25.

Both matches will be nationally televised. Friday’s match against Michigan will be on BTN and streamed online at BTN2GO.com. Sunday’s match will be on ESPNU and can be viewed online at WatchESPN.com.

The Huskers will air on Husker Sports Network radio affiliates, including 107.3 FM in Lincoln and 105.9 FM in Omaha on Friday, and 107.3 FM in Lincoln and AM590 in Omaha on Sunday. A live audio stream will be provided for both matches at Huskers.com and on the official Huskers app. John Baylor is in his 25th season doing play-by-play for the Husker volleyball program. Lauren (Cook) West, a former All-America setter for the Huskers, will provide color commentary.

About the Huskers
• Nebraska enters Big Ten action with a 9-1 overall record. The Huskers have won nine straight matches since a season-opening loss to No. 7 Florida. In that stretch, NU has defeated No. 18 Oregon and No. 14 Creighton.
• Freshman middle blocker Callie Schwarzenbach was named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week on Monday after averaging 2.70 blocks per set in the Husker Invite with a career-high 13 blocks in the 3-1 win over New Mexico. Her 13 blocks are tied for the most in the NCAA in a four-set match this season. Schwarzenbach’s 1.60 blocks per set rank second in the Big Ten and sixth nationally.
• Mikaela Foecke leads the Huskers with 3.57 kills per set and a team-best 0.51 aces per set, which ranks second among all Big Ten players.
• Libero Kenzie Maloney was named the most valuable player of the Husker Invite after helping the Huskers hold their three opponents to a combined .054 hitting percentage. Maloney is averaging 3.94 digs per set this season.
• The Huskers lead the nation in opponent hitting percentage at .109.
• Nebraska’s 1.83 service aces per set are fourth in the Big Ten and 15th nationally.

Coaches
• John Cook, Nebraska: 19th year at Nebraska (540-70); 26th year overall (701-143)
• Mark Rosen, Michigan: 20th year at Michigan (395-244); 27th year overall (604-281)
• Cathy George, Michigan State: 14th year at Michigan State (268-173); 32nd year overall (633-397)

Series History
• The Huskers are 14-3 all-time against Michigan and won the lone meeting last year, 3-0, in Ann Arbor. The Huskers have won six straight in the series dating back to 2014. NU is 7-1 against the Wolverines in Lincoln.
• Nebraska is 19-2-2 all-time against Michigan State and has won eight in a row in the series, though two of those wins have gone five sets and five have gone four sets. The Spartans’ last win was in 2013. NU is 9-0 all-time against MSU in Lincoln.

Scouting Michigan
• No. 18 Michigan enters Big Ten play with a perfect 11-0 record through non-conference action. The Wolverines dropped only one out of 34 sets played, winning 32 straight sets to begin the year.
• Michigan’s most impressive wins came over Notre Dame (twice), Colorado State and LSU. The Wolverines are holding opponents to .109 hitting this season, which ranks second in the nation behind only the Huskers.
• Libero Jenna Lerg leads the Big Ten with 5.53 digs per set. Carly Skjodt leads the team with 3.65 kills per set. Paige Jones adds 3.39 kills per set with 16 service aces.

Scouting Michigan State
• Michigan State enters a Friday match at Iowa with a 12-1 record. The Spartans lost their season opener to Tennessee but have won 12 straight since then, including a 3-1 win at North Carolina.
• Alyssa Chronowski leads the Spartans with 3.14 kills per set and has a team-best 20 aces, second-most in the Big Ten. Naya Gros adds 2.58 kills per set and a team-best 1.40 blocks per set. She is hitting .481, which leads all Big Ten players and ranks second nationally.
• Michigan State leads all Big Ten teams with 2.18 aces per set, which ranks fourth nationally.
• The Spartans have an opponent hitting percentage of .147, which ranks fifth in the Big Ten.

Foecke, Maloney Captain Young Husker Squad
• Seniors Mikaela Foecke and Kenzie Maloney are co-captaining the 2018 Husker squad. Foecke and Maloney are the lone players on the team who have been part of both the 2015 and 2017 NCAA Championship teams, and the duo will look to become the first in program history to appear in four straight final fours and win three national championships.
• Foecke, an outside hitter from West Point, Iowa, was selected the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Championship in both 2015 and 2017 after leading the Huskers to their fourth and fifth NCAA titles all-time.
• Foecke became the fourth player in NCAA history to twice be named the MOP - as she also earned the honor in 2015 - and she was the first to earn the honor in non-consecutive years.
• Foecke was named an AVCA second-team All-American and was unanimously selected to the All-Big Ten team and was an AVCA All-North Region pick for the third straight year in 2017.
• Foecke was a unanimous preseason All-Big Ten selection entering her senior season. She had a career-high 25 kills on .351 hitting with 13 digs at Creighton on Sept. 6, earning Big Ten Co-Player of the Week honors.
• Foecke ranks 10th on Nebraska’s career kills list with 1,295, which also ranks fourth in the rally scoring era (2001 to present). Her 107 career aces are fifth-most in school history in the rally scoring era.
• Maloney, a libero from Louisville, Kentucky, was named to the NCAA Championship All-Tournament team in 2017 and was a PrepVolleyball.com first-team All-American after serving a school-record 13 aces during the NCAA Tournament.
• In her first season as NU’s libero in 2017, Maloney played all 125 sets and averaged 3.62 digs per set and 0.95 aces per set with season totals of 452 digs and 37 aces, second-most on the team.
• Maloney was named to the preseason All-Big Ten team this year. She is averaging a team-high 3.94 digs per set and had a career-high 25 digs in a win at No. 14 Creighton.
• Maloney became the 11th Husker all-time to reach 1,000 career digs when she did so against Missouri State on Sept. 15. She now has 1,008 career digs, ninth-most in school history in the rally scoring era.

Stivrins, Sweet Stepping Up in Sophomore Seasons
• After earning All-Big Ten Freshman team honors in 2017, middle blocker Lauren Stivrins and opposite hitter Jazz Sweet are both playing bigger roles as sophomores in the program.
• Stivrins is averaging 2.14 kills per set on a team-best .400 hitting percentage to go with 0.94 blocks per set. She added serving to her repertoire this season and is third on the team with nine aces.
• Stivrins finished the 2017 season with 2.07 kills per set on .309 hitting and 1.02 blocks per set while playing all 125 sets. She tallied nine kills on .316 hitting against Florida in the NCAA Championship match and had seven kills and a career-high nine blocks in the NCAA Semifinal vs. Penn State.
• Sweet also played in all 125 sets last season and had 2.22 kills per set on .273 hitting in her first year as a Husker. Sweet posted 12 kills on .375 hitting against Penn State in the NCAA Semifinal.
• This year, Sweet moved into the starting lineup for the Big Red and is third on the team in kills per set at 2.69 and is hitting .318. Sweet also has 28 blocks this season, third-most on the team behind only the two middles.

Sun Makes Husker Debut
• Nebraska added sophomore outside hitter Lexi Sun to its attack in the offseason. The University of Texas transfer was a 2017 first-team All-Big 12 selection and received All-America honorable mention in her freshman season with the Longhorns. A native of Encinitas, California, Sun was the PrepVolleyball.com National Player of the Year, the Gatorade Player of the Year and the All-USA Volleyball Player of the Year as a senior at Santa Fe Christian.
• Sun made her Husker debut on Sept. 14 against New Mexico. She had 13 kills on .346 hitting with five digs, and she followed that the next day with nine kills on .368 hitting with seven digs against Missouri State. Sun is playing all six rotations for the Huskers and is averaging 3.14 kills and 1.71 digs per set.

Young Huskers Making Instant Impact
• Eight of the 15 Huskers on the roster are new to the team this season, and five are freshmen.
• Setter Nicklin Hames has started every match and has five double-doubles. The Knoxville, Tennessee native is averaging 9.69 assists and 2.86 digs per set. Her 15 service aces are second-most on the team.
• Middle blocker Callie Schwarzenbach has started every match and leads the team in blocks with 1.60 per set while also contributing 1.00 kills per set on .280 hitting. Schwarzenbach ranks second in the Big Ten and sixth nationally with her 1.60 blocks per set.
• Defensive specialist Megan Miller has played in nine matches and is providing 1.40 digs per set, as well as six aces from the service line.
• Outside hitter Capri Davis has played in seven matches and was huge for the Huskers in a 3-2 comeback win at No. 14 Creighton, providing 18 kills.
• Defensive specialist Chen Abramovich made her first collegiate appearance against Wake Forest on Aug. 31.

Smith Makes Return to Huskers
• Senior setter Brooke Smith was part of the Huskers’ 2015 NCAA Championship team and 2016 Big Ten Championship team. She played the 2017 season at Kansas State before transferring back to Nebraska for her senior season this year. Smith was cleared by the NCAA to start playing for the Huskers on Sept. 7 and has played in four matches, recording five assists and one ace.

Huskers Will Play School-Record 19 Home Matches
• Nebraska will play a school-record 19 regular-season home matches in 2018.
• Nine of the Huskers’ 10 non-conference matches were played at the Devaney Center this season. The only road trip was to Omaha, where NU beat Creighton, 3-2, on Thursday, Sept. 6.
• The 2018 season marked the first time the Huskers didn’t play a non-conference match outside of Nebraska since 2007.

Huskers Aiming for 250th Consecutive Regular-Season Sellout
• Nebraska carries an NCAA women’s record 243 consecutive regular-season sellouts. Should the Huskers continue to sell out, their 250th straight sellout would be on Friday, Nov. 2 against Penn State.

Huskers Ranked No. 3 in AVCA Coaches Poll
• Nebraska is ranked No. 3 in the AVCA Coaches Poll this week.
• The Huskers have been ranked No. 1 in 99 all-time polls, the most in NCAA history.
• The Huskers have been ranked in the top 10 a total of 475 times, which is also the most in NCAA history.
• Nebraska has appeared in all 530 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.

Cook Adds to Legacy; Joins AVCA Hall of Fame
• Nebraska head coach John Cook is in his 19th season as the Nebraska volleyball head coach in 2018. He has led the Huskers to four national championships, eight final fours, 12 conference championships and 16 top-10 final rankings since 2000. Cook has 701 career wins and is one of the all-time winningest coaches in NCAA history.
• Since taking over the program in 2000, Cook has led the Huskers to a nation-leading .885 win percentage in that time (540-70).
• Under Cook, the Huskers have achieved 52 AVCA All-Americans and 19 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, both among the best in the nation. He is a two-time AVCA National Coach of the Year, earning the prestigious honor in 2000 and 2005, and a seven-time conference coach of the year, including Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2016 and 2017, his first and second Big Ten honors with the Huskers in their Big Ten era (2011-present).
• Cook was named the AVCA North Region Coach of the Year in 2016, his fifth career regional coaching honor and fourth while at Nebraska.
• Cook is one of only four active coaches - and one of six all-time - to be a two-time AVCA National Coach of the Year and was honored in 2008 by USA Volleyball, receiving its All-Time Great Coach Award.
• Cook was inducted into the AVCA Hall of Fame in 2017, joining former Husker volleyball coach Terry Pettit in the hall.
• Cook became the 10th active Division I head coach to reach 700 career wins with the Huskers’ eighth win of the season on Sept. 14 against New Mexico. Cook is one of 27 Division I coaches all-time to have reached the 700-win mark.
• Cook passed former Husker head coach and AVCA Hall of Famer Terry Pettit on the all-time career wins list earlier this season. Pettit finished his career with 694 career wins, which Cook passed on Aug. 31 when Nebraska beat Wake Forest.

Husker Fans Set Attendance Standard Once Again
• Nebraska fans led the nation in attendance for a fifth straight season in 2017, averaging 8,202 fans per match, nearly 2,000 more than any other school.
• In 2016, the Huskers also led the nation with an average attendance of 8,210 fans per match, a new NCAA attendance record.
• In 2013, the Huskers led the nation in attendance (8,175) for the first time since 1992, ending Hawaii’s 21-year reign as the national leader.
• The Huskers repeated as attendance champions in 2014 with 8,083 fans per match, which included a school-record 8,585 fans at the Oct. 3 win against Penn State.
• Nebraska has ranked in the top three nationally in attendance every season since 1990 (27 straight seasons).

Cook’s Coaching Tree Continues to Grow
• Nebraska head coach John Cook’s assistant coaches have a great track record of moving on to become head coaches.
• Following the 2017 season, Husker assistant Tyler Hildebrand was named the Director of Coaching, Beach Volleyball for USA Volleyball in his home state of California.
• After the 2016 season, Nebraska assistants Chris Tamas and Dani Busboom Kelly both accepted high-level Division I head coaching jobs. Busboom Kelly became the head coach at Louisville, while Tamas accepted the head coaching job at Big Ten foe Illinois. Tamas led his Fighting Illini squad to the Sweet 16 in his first year, while Busboom Kelly made the NCAA Tournament with Louisville and was named the AVCA East Region Coach of the Year.
• Seven assistants under Cook have become head coaches following their time on Cook’s Nebraska staff: Craig Skinner (Kentucky), Lee Maes (Virginia), Lizzy Stemke (Georgia), Dan Conners (UC Davis), Dan Meske (Augustana, Associate Head Coach at Louisville), Busboom Kelly and Tamas.
• In the last eight years, five of Cook’s Husker assistants have become head coaches. with her 1.60 blocks per set.
• Defensive specialist Megan Miller has played in nine matches and is providing 1.40 digs per set, as well as six aces from the service line.
• Outside hitter Capri Davis has played in seven matches and was huge for the Huskers in a 3-2 comeback win at No. 14 Creighton, providing 18 kills.
• Defensive specialist Chen Abramovich made her first collegiate appearance against Wake Forest on Aug. 31.

Nebraska Volleyball Retires Jersey of Sarah Pavan
• Nebraska volleyball retired the jersey of one of the most decorated student-athletes in NCAA history, Sarah Pavan, on Sept. 9 after the Huskers’ win over Iowa State. She became the ninth volleyball player in school history to have her jersey retired. Pavan was also inducted into the Nebraska Athletic Hall of Fame that weekend.
• The Kitchener, Ontario native is NU’s all-time leader in kills (2,008) and kills per match (4.56). She is one of five players in NCAA history to be named a four-time first-team AVCA All-American, and she helped lead the Huskers win the 2006 NCAA Championship.
• Pavan was the AVCA National Player of the Year, a three-time Big 12 Player of the Year, a two-time ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American of the Year and the Honda Broderick Cup winner, given to the best female student-athlete in the country. She earned a 4.0 GPA majoring in biochemistry. Pavan went on to compete in the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, representing Canada in beach volleyball.