#2 Nebraska (14-1) vs. #10 Purdue (12-3)

When: Friday, October 11, 2024, 7:30 PM (CT)

Where: Bob Devaney Sports Center, Lincoln, NE

Look: B1G

Radio: Husker Radio Network

Live stats

There’s no such thing as a “regular” schedule in college volleyball anymore, but it certainly feels familiar to have a match on Friday and Saturday nights this weekend. Nebraska faces Purdue on Friday and Rutgers on Saturday.

Nebraska also had five days to prepare for this weekend. They last played on Sunday, October 6 at home against Iowa. Five full days to work, recover from minor injuries and prepare for a physical Boilermaker team.

Purdue has wins over Kentucky and Minnesota. They have losses to Kansas, Creighton and Penn State. They didn’t play an extremely challenging schedule in the first three weeks of the season. It was a medium challenge. It increased just before the conference season started with games against Kentucky, Kansas and Creighton, all within six days of each other.

Nebraska played a challenging pre-conference schedule. These early season games are good ways for teams to improve, grow and test ties, if you will, before conference and national championship games that have trophy implications.

At this point in the season, those early games gave you gifts of improvement and what matters is that you carry those gifts with you for the rest of the season. You learn and improve from them.

The most important gift Nebraska needs in the game against Purdue was learned while playing Creighton. During set three of the Creighton match, Nebraska took its foot off the gas pedal. Huskers stalled midway through set three and didn’t finish or execute at the same level. The Bluejays won set three by a score of 33-31 and then carried that momentum into set four to win this one as well, 25-16.

Purdue is similar to Creighton in many ways; two strong outside hitters, very well coached, quality service and persistent players. They don’t give up when they are two sets down. Keep the execution high, keep the focus and finish the match before you take your foot off the gas.

The key to a win over Purdue is good serve. Boilermakers have been gaining steam on the serving front in recent weeks. In those weeks they defeated Minnesota in five sets, Northwestern in four sets and Michigan State in three. The key to their victory against the Gophers was 17 service aces. Raven Colvin had seven aces and Ryan McAleer had six.

The good news is that Nebraska is the best passing team in the country both statistically and visually. If we just look at error rate (balls that are unplayable after passing), Nebraska is half a percent better than the next team, Pitt. Nebraska commits errors on just 3.5% of their passes, compared to 4-6% of the other top teams in the country.

Coach Cook says teams that win the serve-and-pass game win games. Huskers win the passing game at midseason. What Purdue does well from the service line is send a wide variety of tough serves to teams.

Chloe Chicoine serves a jump top spin serve, Colvin serves a flat float serve and McAleer moves her serve short and deep on passers like a yo-yo game. Each server brings a new look to passersby.

Huskers have been practicing passing each type of serve this week and will have to communicate as each server steps to the line. You see them do this as the camera pans the serve. Lexi Rodriguez will tell Harper Murray, “I got you deep” and Murray responds, “I got you short.” They have passing lanes and angles that they practice. This communication, coupled with thousands of iterations with each type of server, will yield good results, Bergen Reilly overlooks.

The second key is limited to the two outside hitters. Chicoine and Eva Hudson receive 60% of all Boilermaker sets. They also earn 53% of all kills for the team. Obviously, limiting their kills will significantly reduce Purdue’s chances of reaching 25 points for a win.

Raven Colvin in the middle and Kenna Wollard on the right can also score, but that is in specific situations. Chicoine and Hudson play in all types of situations, so Husker blockers will always prepare for that set.

Colvin, Wollard and to a lesser extent the second middle, Lourdes Myers, will receive well-positioned and timed sets. Nebraska middles will follow and follow their middles, but know that 2/3 of the time the set goes to Chicoine or Hudson wherever they are.

#2 Nebraska (14-1)

#2 Bergen Reilly 6’1”SO Setter
#5 Rebekah Allick 6’4” JR MB
#6 Laney Choboy 5’3” SO DS/L
#7 Maisie Boesiger 5’6” JR DS/L
#8 Lexi Rodriguez 5’5” SR DS/L
#9 Kennedi Orr 6’0” SR setter
#10 Olivia Mauch 5’6” FR DS/L
#11 Leyla Blackwell 6’4” SR MB
#12 Taylor Landfair 6’5” SR OH
#13 Merritt Beason 6’4” SR OH
#15 Andi Jackson 6’3”ZO MB
#21 Skyler Pierce 6’2” FR OH
#22 Lindsay Krause 6’4” SR OH
#27 Harper Murray 6ft SE OH

#10 Purdue (12-3)

#1 Rachel Williams 5’7” R/FR DS
#2 Chloe Chicoine 5’10” SO OH
#3 Ryan McAleer 5’6” FR DS
#4 Kenna Wollard 6’1” SO OH
#5 Taylor Anderson 6’1” SO Setter
#6 Sienna Foster 5’9” FR DS
#7 Raven Colvin 6’1” SR MB
#8 Raven Gray 6’1” SR OH/RS
#9 Lourdes Myers 6’3” R/SR MB
#10 Ali Hornung 5’10” SR DS
#11 Allie Shondell 5’10” FR setter
#14 Grace Heaney 6’2” SO RS
#15 Lizzie Carr 6’6” R/SO MB
#17 Eva Hudson 6’1” JR OH
#19 Sydney Yim 6’1” SR setter
#21 Julia Kane 5’11” SO DS
#22 Emily Rastovski 6’2” R/JR OH