And both Maggie Mendelson and Caroline Jurevicius have started matches for the fourth-ranked Nittany Lions. It’s another sign of how good Nebraska’s recruiting has been — two players can go from the Husker bench to starting for one of the top programs in the country.

Mendelson played right-side hitter and middle blocker during two seasons in Lincoln, and was also on the Husker basketball team. She was a top-40 national recruit in both sports.

Mendelson is now thriving with more playing time, leading PSU with 122 blocks and a .324 hitting percentage.

“I think the biggest thing is she’s not playing basketball,” Nebraska coach John Cook said. “So she’s committed full time to volleyball. We knew when she came here at some point she was going to make a decision, and when she decided to go full-time volleyball or full-time basketball, that’s where she would probably really shine. And remember she was a year younger too when she got here.

“So I just think you’re seeing what we all thought she could do. She’s getting great opportunities, and she’s got a great setter setting her (Izzy Starck). So she’s doing a nice job.”

For Jurevicius, it was going to be difficult to get on the court at NU with Merritt Beason at her position.

Jurevicius also had some good matches this season, and has 168 kills.

“She’s doing exactly what we thought she would be doing. She hits the ball hard and she’s a great competitor,” Cook said. “She’s playing the role that we envisioned her playing after Merritt. That’s why we redshirted her.”

Penn State also has Jordan Hopp, a senior middle blocker from Alliance who has played seven matches this season. She was previously at Iowa State for four seasons.

In Nebraska’s sweep of Wisconsin last week, Bergen Reilly set up Harper Murray and Beason for kills on back-row attacks several times.

When the opponent sends its blockers to defend Andi Jackson on the slide attack, the middle of the court can sometimes open up for the back-row attack.

“I got to give Bergen a lot of credit,” Cook said. “She made some great decisions to set those up. You can’t coach her or tell her that. That’s just a feel that they have, and she did a really nice job.”

Last weekend’s Nebraska-Wisconsin match averaged 591,000 TV viewers, making it the most watched volleyball match on BTN this season.

A schedule change in the NCAA tournament means the four Elite Eight matches will be spread across two days (Dec. 14 and 15) instead of all on the same day, like previous seasons. That also means more matches during the second week of the tournament will be in the evening. The TV lineup has also improved, with more matches on ESPN2 and one on ABC.

The NCAA tournament selection show is at 5 p.m. Sunday on ESPN.