As I write this, Nebraska volleyball just got swept by SMU, so I’m not in the best of moods. The Huskers weren’t the only top team to get bitten by the early season bug, though, and it’s been a surprisingly inconsistent start to the season.

If you read our season preview (of course you did!), you know that there was an abundance of good volleyball games to start the year, and many of them did not disappoint. Unless, of course, you’re a Badger fan… but we’ll get to that in a moment.

The AVCA First Serve Showcase

As promised, Tuesday’s volleyball event was great. The #2 Nebraska Cornhuskers defeated the #9 Kentucky Wildcats in four sets. Meanwhile, the #6 Louisville Cardinals defeated the #3 Wisconsin Badgers. The Badgers continued to struggle with serving and Louisville seized the opportunity for a big early season win.

Sort of…: As a Wisconsin fan, things weren’t even disappointing at the time. Losing a home game to Louisville is far from embarrassing. And you could rationalize it because of things — serving, receiving, etc. — that are supposed to be fixable. You know, in theory.

Opening weekend

The first real weekend of volleyball also offered treats and surprises, with many teams competing in small tournaments across the country to kick off the season. Here’s how the ranked teams fared:

Friday: #8 Penn State @ #15 Tennessee (PSU 3 – Tenn 1)

Friday: #4 Pittsburgh Panthers @ #10 Oregon (Pitt 3 – Ore 0)

Friday: UCLA @ #14 Georgia Tech (UCLA 3 – GT 2)

Sunday: #3 Wisconsin vs. #1 Texas (Text 3 – Whisky 1)

Sunday: #18 Minnesota vs. #5 Stanford (Stan 3 – Minny 2)

Monday: #3 Wisconsin vs. #5 Stanford (Stan 3 – Wisky 1)

Monday: #18 Minnesota vs. #1 Texas (Minny 3 – Tex 2)(!!!!!)

There were a few more notable results on Tuesday:

#7 Penn State defeats #4 Louisville, 3-0

Unranked SMU defeats #2 Nebraska, 3-0

I saw some of this game and I’m glad I didn’t see the whole thing. It was just a sloppy, undisciplined game by the Huskers that was incredibly disappointing. Coach John Cook said after the game, “We got punched in the face and let them keep hitting us.” It will be interesting to see how Nebraska responds to this – the good news is that it’s still early in the season and as you can see above, very few top teams are unscathed. It takes some of the pressure off of undefeated seasons and all that comes with high expectations. But it’s still a pretty big loss and this will be a chance for a proper gut check. Let’s hope they get back on course soon.

Sort of…: Like my esteemed co-author, I’m also glad I didn’t watch all of my favorite team’s games, the loss to Stanford. Again, no shame, Stanford is really good, the only team to win both games at the Women’s College Volleyball Showcase. But 0-3 is 0-3, and even if it was all against top 10 competition, it doesn’t feel right.

Conference-wise, the depth looks fantastic. Minnesota beat #1 Texas, Penn State beat #4 Louisville. Unranked UCLA beat #14 Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Nebraska and Wisconsin should be clearly higher, but it doesn’t seem like it right now, to say the least.

And nationally? New ratings dropped Monday. In the 48 hours since then, #1, #2, and #4 have lost. It’s not uncommon for elite teams to have slow starts, especially with the portal, as they evaluate all their pieces and put them together properly. Texas last year is a good example. But this is more than most years.

B1G has eight ranked teams and three others getting votes. It will be very interesting to watch the rest of the non-conference season and how much more parity we get.

Coming Soon

The Big Ten has a handy compiled schedule that you can check out here , but a few highlights coming up this week are (all times CDT). Kudos to the SEC Network for ramping up their college volleyball coverage!

Thursday September 5:

• #25 UCLA Bruins at #17 Tennessee (6:00 p.m., SEC Network)
• #20 USC Trojans at #11 Creighton (6:00 p.m., FS1)
• #ARV Indiana at #1 Texas (8:00 p.m., SEC Network)

Friday September 6:

• #6 Wisconsin at #ARV TCU (4:00pm)
• #7 PSU at #9 Kentucky (6:00 p.m., SEC Network)
• #18 Minnesota at #23 Baylor (7:00 PM)

Saturday September 7:

• #ARV Washington at #ARV Georgia (3:00 PM)
• #18 Minnesota at #ARV TCU (4:00pm)
• #6 Wisconsin at #23 Baylor (7:00 PM)

It looks like it’s going to be an interesting season. I hope you’ve been watching volleyball. If not, there are still plenty of opportunities!