Nebraska Volleyball Plays Home and Away This Week as 2 Weeks Remain in B1G Play

It feels like the season just started a month ago, but we are nearing the end of B1G team play as only 2 weeks remain in conference play. The chance to remain undefeated in the regular season is slowly

becoming a reality as well. They will have a couple tough matches along with a couple matches that shouldn’t be too much of a challenge. Each of the remaining matches will feature one of these tough matches which are Indiana this Saturday and Penn State next Friday, November 28th.

Last weekend, Husker volleyball took a trip to LA to take on the UCLA Bruins on Friday and USC on Sunday. While California was hot and sunny when I was there just a few weeks ago for the Husker football game against UCLA, it was the complete opposite for volleyball this last weekend when it was rainy just about all weekend.

The Huskers suffered their 1st set loss since September 16th to the Bruins on Friday and you would’ve thought UCLA won the national championship with how they celebrated this. I bet it was cool for them, but it was just a set and Nebraska won the match 3-1. I would say you could check UCLA’s twitter for this accomplishment, but they deleted it since it literally just reiterated the same thing 3 times in their bullets.

The girls got back into their sweeping ways on Sunday as they swept USC in front of another sold out crowd on another rainy day. They snapped the Trojans’ 9 game winning streak as well. It was a good, commanding win over a team that will be in the tournament come December, which is just about a week and a half away.

This weekends schedule looks a little different with matches on Thursday and Saturday instead of a Friday and Saturday/Sunday schedule. Iowa will visit Lincoln on Thursday and the Huskers will travel to Bloomington to play Indiana on Saturday.

A Look at Iowa

2024 Record: 10-22 (4-16 B1G)
NCAA Tournament Result: Did not qualify
Ranked Wins: Did not have one

The Iowa Hawkeyes volleyball program has been one of the struggling programs in the B1G for awhile now and are fighting to be above .500 this season for the 1st time since the 2015 season. A couple of the seasons include 0 wins because of a recruiting violation that came to light.

Iowa started this season winning 6 straight matches before losing in 5 sets to Southeast Missouri State. They also lost the Cy-Hawk match in 5 sets to an Iowa State team that has been in and out of the top 25 this season.

While they still haven’t beat a ranked opponent this season, and that won’t start with the Huskers, they have started winning matches that didn’t seem winnable just a season ago. They beat Michigan State who started off the season very strong as well and they also beat Illinois in another 5 set match. They are starting to gain ground on teams in the lower half in the conference, but are still looking for that next level to be able to beat the middle of the pack teams.

The Hawkeyes hit a little bump in the road after last season when one of their top players, Malu Garcia, decided to transfer out and return home to Hawaii to play for the University of Hawaii-Hilo for the 2025 season. This meant they needed to replace a strong player and have girls step up to fill the void in what Garcia did in 2024.

Iowa has a group of 3 that have been putting up points for the Hawkeyes and pushing them past teams in all of the 5 set matches they have played. 2 of the 3 are transfers as well so they have been using the portal to their advantage the past couple years.

Grad Student OH Chard’e Vanzandt is one of their incoming transfers this year and has quickly become, probably, their top player. Vanzandt played 5 years at Chattanooga before transferring to Iowa for her 6th season. She has 337 kills this season and is hitting .207% so far. She is a very well rounded player as she has also recorded 97 digs and 35 blocks. Look for setter Claire Ammeraal to get the ball to her as much as she can.

The 2nd head of their monster is Junior MH Hannah Whittingstall who has 1 season with Iowa already under her belt. She is a transfer, though, coming from SMU after spending just her freshman year there. She only appeared in 15 matches with the Mustangs.

Whittingstall was a big addition to their team last year, with 214 kills, and she has almost passed that number this year already with 208 kills so far. She is a low error attacker as well as she only has 52 errors this season and is hitting .352%. Defensively, she also gets it done for the Hawkeyes leading the team with 124 blocks and 15 of these are solo.

The final head of the Iowa monster is actually a freshman that is from Estonia. OH Carmel Vares has been solid for the Hawkeyes so far this season with 288 kills and hitting .247%. She has also totaled 60 blocks this season which is good for 4th on the team.

Two other noteworthy players for the Hawkeyes are both sophomores, so they are underclassmen, are Alyssa Worden and Aleksandra Stojanovic who are hitting .197% and .359%, respectively, this season.

Containing Vanzandt, Whittingstall, and Vares will be vital for the Huskers as the Hawkeyes will be eyeing a win inside of the Bob Devaney Center for the 1st time in program history.

Thursday’s match will begin at 7:00pm CST at the Devaney Center and will be broadcast on FS1.

Iowa Hawkeyes (14-14, B1G 5-11)

#0 Allison Berent 5’7” RS-SO DS/L
#1 Peyton Young 5’11” FR MH
#2 Milana Moisio 5’7” SR DS/L
#4 Claire Ammeraal 6’2” SR Setter
#6 Hallie Steponaitis 6’1” RS-FR OH
#7 Chard’e Vanzandt 5’11” Grad Student OH
#8 Gia McGrew 6’0” FR OH
#9 Gabby Deery 6’2” JR OH
#10 Makena Rumple 6’1” FR MH
#11 Jenna Meitzler 6’1” SO Setter
#12 Hannah Whittingstall 6’2” JR MH
#13 Jaimie Marquardt 5’8” SO DS/L
#15 Carmel Vares 6’3” FR OH
#16 Emily Lavin 5’10” RS-SO OH/DS
#17 Greta Schlichter 5’9” JR DS/L
#21 Marichka Hoshylyk 6’0” FR OH
#22 Rosa Vesty 6’2” JR OH
#24 Aleksandra Stojanovic 6’3” SO MH
#39 Alyssa Worden 5’11” RS-SO OH

A Look at Indiana

2024 Record: 15-15 (8-12 B1G)
NCAA Tournament: Did not qualify
Ranked Wins: None

The Indiana Hoosiers are a team that has surprised everyone this season. After a 15-15 finish in 2024, the Hoosiers have exploded out of the gates this season and are currently 21-5. They didn’t make the NCAA Tournament last year, but are probably a for sure thing for the tournament this season.

Along with Iowa, the Hoosiers have had a tournament drought of their own. They haven’t qualified for the tournament since the 2010 season when they went 23-12. This was 15 years ago so they know they are due for an appearance. While Steve Aird might be what has helped bring them to the next level, he is a very controversial coach in the league as reports about him abusing his players have been coming out in the past few years. I’ll leave that for you to dive into as I won’t get too much into here since it is all alleged at the moment.

Indiana will be one of the final tests for the Huskers as the end of the regular season is quickly approaching. Although Indiana is ranked themselves, they have also have a handful of ranked wins this season. A year ago, they had none. So far they’ve beat USC, UCLA (when they were ranked #24), and Penn State. They got their 1st win ever in Rec Hall on November 2nd.

This Indiana team is pretty young as they only have 4 seniors/grad students on the team this season so they will return a lot of players who have helped aid the uptick in wins this season.

Seniors Candela Alonso-Corcelles and Avry Tatum are putting an exclamation mark on their careers this season as they have been amazing for the Hoosiers so far. Alonso-Corcelles, an OH, and Tatum, an opposite, trade kills in matches and are unstoppable at times. They are also hitting at a high clip for the team with Alonso-Corcelles is hitting .258% and Tatum is hitting .320%.

A freshman has also looked promising for the years to come as OH Jaidyn Jager has been having a really good season for Indiana. She has the 2nd highest amount of kills on the team with 319 and is hitting .253%. Jager also plays very good defense, and doesn’t let the ball hit the floor, as she has a team high 202 digs. This is good enough for an average of 2.22 digs/set.

The Hoosiers have been using 3 middle blockers this season with Freshman Victoria Gray being their only steady starter the team. She is currently the team leader in blocks with 89 and is averaging 1.06 blocks/set. She is also 4th on the team in kills with 114 and is hitting .366%. When Gray gets the chance to kill the ball, she will take it as she rarely makes an error with only 28 on 235 attempts.

Sophmore Ella Boersema and Senior Madi Sell have been the other middle blockers that the Hoosiers have been using this season. Boersema has played 42 sets while Sell has played 54 this season, but Boersema is winning in the blocks stat line as she has recorded 59 compared to Sell’s 47. Sell has consistently gotten the start with Boersema subbing into the matches.

Saturday will also be Indiana’s senior day so they will be playing for more than just the win. They will make it an even tougher match than it was already slated to be. The match will start at 5:00pm CST which is an hour before the Nebraska-Penn State football game begins. The match will be streamed on B1G+ which makes 3 ranked matches, that Nebraska has played in, to be streamed on B1G+ and not broadcast on a bigger network.