Huskers Eager For Stanford Test

The No. 1 vs. No. 2 clash that players, coaches and fans have been anticipating throughout this young volleyball season has arrived.
 
That Nebraska and Stanford switched rankings only a couple of days before Wednesday night's match is a late plot twist.

Who's targeting who, anyway?
 
Nebraska had already settled into the underdog role, its obvious motivation avenging last season's loss to Stanford – by a total of three points – in the NCAA Championship match.
 
"I have it engrained in my head last year what happened with Stanford," Nebraska coach John Cook said. "I know what we got to do."
 
But Stanford now arrives in Lincoln fresh off a five-set loss to Minnesota that ended its 37-match winning streak. Perhaps not the best time to face a team with six returning starters, including the two-time AVCA National Player of the Year.
 
"Stanford is definitely one of the best teams in the nation," Nebraska setter Nicklin Hames said. "They have a lot of experience, and you can really test to see how good you are against them.
 
"If you can battle, you know that you're there."
 
That's what No. 1 Nebraska (7-0) intends to find out in Wednesday's 7 p.m. match against No. 2 Stanford (5-1) at the Devaney Sports Center. It matches teams that have won the last four national titles, two apiece.
 
As for which team owns the emotional edge, Hames advises her team to ignore the storylines and hype and just focus on playing Nebraska volleyball.
 
"With this young team, we just need to make sure that's not a factor, and we go out swinging our best and being our best," said Hames, a team captain.
 
"There is that revenge factor there, but I feel like we can't let that affect us too much, because that's when you get going and you have too much adrenaline. That's when you kind of get out of hand. We just need to control that a little bit."
 
Cook says his unbeaten team isn't worthy of its new No. 1 ranking because the Huskers haven't yet played the toughest competition, whereas Stanford will be playing its fifth straight Top 10 opponent. The Cardinal has already defeated No. 7 Florida, No. 3 Texas and No. 3 Penn State.
 
"I'm looking forward for the opportunity for our team to be able to play against them," Cook said, "for us to see where we're at and how hard we have to compete and how clean of volleyball we have to play when we want to play with the best.
 
"They're excited they have a great opportunity and a great challenge."
 
Lexi Sun averages four kills a set to pace Nebraska, and All-American middle Lauren Stivrins leads the Huskers in blocks, with 1.23 per set. In last year's match against Stanford, Stivrins had 19 kills on .615 hitting with five blocks.
 
Team-wise, Nebraska again leads the Big Ten Conference with an opponent hitting percentage of .123 after holding four of seven foes to below .100 hitting.
 
This is Nebraska's fifth all-time No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup, and three will have been against Stanford. The only other such match in Lincoln came in 1995, when the Huskers lost in four games to Stanford at the NU Coliseum.
 
Nebraska, 7-0 for the first time since 2016, will be playing before a hyped, sold-out crowd at the Devaney Sports Center, and a national television audience (BTN and streamed on FoxSports.com) will be able to see the mecca of college volleyball at its best.
 
"This is why (players) come here," Cook said. "They want to play in big matches that are hyped and on TV."
 
It's also why Cook purposefully scheduled this match on a Wednesday, to stay independent of college football and give his sport the spotlight.
 
"This is what we want in college volleyball," Cook said. "We need to find ways to do more of this."
 
Reach Brian at brosenthal@huskers.com or follow him on Twitter @GBRosenthal.