Huskers Travel to Purdue, Indiana

MATCH PREVIEW
• The second-ranked Nebraska volleyball team heads to the Hoosier State this weekend for a pair of Big Ten road matches. On Friday, the Huskers will battle No. 17 Purdue at Holloway Gymnasium in West Lafayette, Ind., at 6 p.m. (CT). On Saturday, Nebraska will visit Indiana at Wilkinson Hall in Bloomington, Ind., also at 6 p.m. (CT).  
• Both matches this weekend will be televised on Big Ten Network and streamed on FoxSports. 
• The Huskers Radio Network will broadcast all the action on their radio affiliates, including 107.3 FM in Lincoln and AM 590 in Omaha on Friday and 105.9 FM in Omaha on Saturday. A live audio stream will be provided at Huskers.com and on the Huskers app. 
• John Baylor is in his 30th 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 (11-0) has won its first 11 matches of the season for the first time since 2016, when NU started 12-0. The Huskers began the 2008 season with a 20-0 record. 
• Nebraska is in the midst of playing five straight ranked teams and thus far has beaten No. 5 Stanford (3-1), No. 21 Kentucky (3-1), No. 21 Ohio State (3-0) and No. 12 Minnesota (3-0). The Huskers have played five consecutive matches against ranked teams only five times in program history and have never won all five.  
• The Huskers went undefeated in non-conference play for the first time since 2016 and just the second time since 2008. 
• The Huskers, who led the nation in defense in 2022, have held their opponents this season to a combined .106 hitting percentage, which ranks first nationally. Seven of Nebraska’s 11 opponents have hit under .100. 
• Nebraska has been sharp offensively of late, upping its season average hitting percentage to .294, which is second in the Big Ten and 10th nationally. 
• The Big Red is averaging 2.90 blocks per set, which ranks ninth in the country. 
• Two-time All-America junior libero Lexi Rodriguez paces the Husker defense with 3.44 digs per set. 
• Junior opposite hitter Merritt Beason, a Florida transfer, contributes a team-leading 3.44 kills per set and 2.17 digs per set. Beason was named Big Ten Player of the Week on Sept. 18. 
• Freshman outside hitter Harper Murray is averaging 3.36 kills per set on .300 hitting. Murray was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week on Aug. 28 and Sept. 18. 
• Sophomore middle blocker Bekka Allick ranks fourth nationally and leads the Big Ten with 1.63 blocks per set. Allick is also hitting .308 with 1.63 kills per set. 
• Freshman middle blocker Andi Jackson is off to a strong start as a Husker, averaging 2.27 kills per set on a team-high .504 hitting percentage, which ranks first nationally. Jackson is also contributing 1.21 blocks per set. 
• Freshman setter Bergen Reilly is putting up 10.14 assists and 2.56 digs per set. Reilly became just the second true freshman setter to be a day one starter under John Cook (Nicklin Hames). Reilly was named Big Ten Setter and Freshman of the Week on Sept. 25. 
• Nebraska was the last NCAA Division I program to drop a set this season when Creighton won set three of NU’s 3-1 win on Sept. 6. The Huskers had opened the season with 17 consecutive set wins. The Huskers have dropped just three out of 36 sets played this season. All three were third sets.  

SCOUTING REPORT: PURDUE
• No. 17 Purdue is 8-3 (2-0 Big Ten) after opening Big Ten play last weekend with a 3-1 win at Maryland and 3-0 win over Rutgers. 
• Freshman Chloe Chicoine leads the Boilermakers with 4.11 kills per set and is hitting .264. 
• Eva Hudson, the 2022 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, adds 3.84 kills per set and is hitting .243. 

SCOUTING REPORT: INDIANA
• Indiana (11-4, 1-1 Big Ten) began Big Ten play with a 3-1 win over Illinois and a 3-0 loss at No. 1 Wisconsin. The Hoosiers host Iowa on Friday before playing the Huskers on Saturday.  
• Junior setter Camryn Haworth guides the Hoosiers with 9.78 assists per set and 36 service aces, which leads the NCAA. Haworth was a first-team All-Big Ten selection last year. 
• Indiana ranks ninth nationally and leads the Big Ten in aces per set (2.18). The Hoosiers are second in the Big Ten and 17th nationally in opponent hitting percentage (.149). 

SERIES HISTORY
• Nebraska is 23-8 all-time against Purdue and has won four in a row. The last time Purdue beat the Huskers was 3-2 on Oct. 26, 2019 in West Lafayette. The Huskers swept both matches between the teams last year. 
• Nebraska is 22-1 against Indiana and has won 22 straight dating back to Indiana’s lone win in 1978. The Huskers swept the Hoosiers last year in Lincoln, 25-22, 25-18, 25-19. 

HUSKERS RANKED NO. 2 IN AVCA COACHES POLL
• Nebraska is ranked second in the AVCA Coaches Poll this week.
• The Huskers have been ranked in the top 10 a total of 548 times, which is also the most in NCAA history.
• Nebraska has appeared in all 609 AVCA Coaches Polls it has been eligible for since it was established in 1982. Nebraska is the only program to be ranked in every eligible poll all-time.
• Nebraska’s 609 consecutive weeks of being ranked is the longest active streak in Division I for any sport, leading Connecticut women’s basketball and North Carolina women’s soccer.
• Nebraska has been ranked No. 1 in 102 all-time polls, the most in NCAA history. 

AVCA HALL OF FAMER JOHN COOK IN 24TH SEASON AT NEBRASKA
• Nebraska head coach John Cook is in his 24th season as the Nebraska volleyball head coach in 2023. He has led the Huskers to four national championships, 10 final fours, 12 conference championships and 21 top-10 final rankings since 2000. 
• Cook has 828 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 .872 win percentage (667-98). 
• Under Cook, the Huskers have achieved 64 AVCA All-Americans and 20 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 is one of only two 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. 

HUSKER VOLLEYBALL SETS ATTENDANCE RECORDS
• It was a record-breaking night at Memorial Stadium on Aug. 30 when Nebraska hosted Omaha in an outdoor volleyball match. The attendance of 92,003 set a record for the largest crowd to watch a women’s sporting event in the United States. The crowd of more than 92,000 also surpassed what is widely regarded as the world-record attendance for any women’s sporting event.
• The previously recognized world record was 91,648 fans in an UEFA Champions League match between Barcelona and Wolfsburg on April 22, 2022, at Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain. The previous record for an American women’s sporting event was 90,185 in USA’s FIFA World Cup Final against China on July 10, 1999, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.
• Along with the two records mentioned above, the Huskers shattered a pair of NCAA records, exceeding the previous records for any NCAA volleyball match and an NCAA volleyball regular-season match. 
• Entering the match, the largest-ever crowd for any NCAA volleyball match was 18,755 when Nebraska played Wisconsin in the NCAA Final at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, on Dec. 18, 2021. The largest NCAA volleyball regular-season attendance was 16,833 when Wisconsin hosted Florida at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wis., on Sept 16, 2022.
• The Husker volleyball program has sold out 311 consecutive regular-season matches. Nebraska’s sellout streak is an NCAA women’s record. The Huskers have led the nation in attendance every season since moving into the Bob Devaney Sports Center in 2013.
• Nine of the top 11 crowds in NCAA volleyball history are matches that have involved the Huskers. 
• Of the 16 largest NCAA volleyball regular-season crowds, 14 have been Nebraska matches.
• On Sept. 22, Nebraska broke its Devaney Center attendance record since the arena was reconfigured for volleyball in 2013. A crowd of 8,711 turned out to see the Nebraska-Ohio State match. Over the summer, 402 seats were added to the Devaney Center, increasing the capacity to 8,309. 

REILLY COLLECTS BIG TEN SETTER, FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK ON SEPT. 25
• Nebraska freshman setter Bergen Reilly was named the Big Ten Setter of the Week and the Big Ten Freshman of the Week, the conference office announced on Sept. 25. 
• Reilly led the Huskers to sweeps of No. 21 Ohio State and No. 12 Minnesota by averaging 12.67 assists per set, 1.67 digs per set and 0.83 blocks per set.
• In the 3-0 win against the Buckeyes, Reilly had 37 assists as the Huskers hit .333. Against Minnesota, Reilly showed her defensive prowess, totaling 39 assists with eight digs and four blocks, including a solo stuff. 

BEASON, MURRAY EARN BIG TEN AWARDS ON SEPT. 18
• Merritt Beason was named Big Ten Player of the Week and Harper Murray was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week on Sept. 18. 
• Beason led the Huskers to a 3-1 road win at No. 5 Stanford and a 3-1 home win against No. 21 Kentucky with 4.00 kills per set on a .354 hitting percentage to go with 1.88 digs per set. Beason had a season-high 17 kills and 10 digs and hit .438 in the win over Kentucky. Last Tuesday, the junior from Gardendale, Ala., had 15 kills and hit .273 at Stanford. 
• Murray earned her second Big Ten Freshman of the Week honor after averaging 3.63 kills per set with a .349 hitting percentage and 2.00 digs per set in Nebraska’s two victories. The Ann Arbor, Mich., native finished with 17 kills and 10 digs and hit .308 in Sunday night’s win over Kentucky. She had 12 kills, six digs, four blocks and three aces while hitting a season-best .417 at Stanford last Tuesday. 

MURRAY NAMED BIG TEN FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK ON AUG. 28
• Nebraska freshman outside hitter Harper Murray was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week on Aug. 28 by the conference office.
• In her first collegiate matches, Murray led the Huskers to a 3-0 record at the Ameritas Players Challenge. The Ann Arbor, Mich., native averaged 3.67 kills per set with a .343 hitting percentage. She also posted 2.33 digs per set and totaled six blocks, five aces and four set assists. 
• Murray had nine kills on .350 hitting with five blocks and four digs in her collegiate debut against Utah State. She followed with 10 kills on .389 hitting with seven digs and three aces. Murray finished the weekend with 14 kills on .310 hitting with 10 digs for her first collegiate double-double.