#1 Nebraska vs. #11 Wisconsin
When: Friday, October 31st, 8:00pm (CT)
Where: UW Field House Madison, WI
Watch: Big Ten Network
Radio: Husker Radio Network
Live stats
Nebraska travels to Madison, Wisconsin on Halloween night. They will face the #11 team in the country in front of a sellout crowd. Nebraska plays in front of sellout crowds almost every time they take
the court, but this one is cheering against them. Typically, on the road, over half the fans in a sellout are cheering for Nebraska.
For example, most of the fans in New Brunswick, NJ that came to watch the Huskers play Rutgers were either straight Nebraska fans or fans of volleyball that wanted to watch the star studded #1 team in the country. Either way, they were there for the Nebraska show.
The fans in UW Field House on Friday night are wearing red, but they are not cheering for Nebraska. They will use all their vocal power to influence the outcome of the match for their Badgers. Now, the Huskers have faced this type of crowd already this season and come out victorious.
The Penn State crowd energy and fervor is similar to that of the Badgers and Nebraska beat the Nittany Lions at their home back on October 3rd. Heck, the crowd they faced in West Lafayette versus #12 Purdue was raucous and Nebraska won that match in straight sets. But you should not discount the energy plus the talent of #11 Wisconsin.
Wisconsin has three losses on the season. Their first loss came to #2 Texas early in the season. Their other two losses came after their starting setter was sidelined with an injury. Charlie Fuerbringer left their match against Michigan with what looked like an injury to her shoulder. The Badgers won that match against the Wolverines, 3-0, but went to Penn State and lost in three sets, beat Maryland and UCLA in straight sets and then lost to USC in four sets.
The second setter, who is now starting for the Badgers, is a 6’3” freshman listed on the roster as a right side/setter. Clearly the coaching plan was not to have her running the offense at this point in the season. Addy Horner is learning through a firehose as she works to perform all the rolls a setter must. Every match Horner gets better and Wisconsin gets closer to the team they were on the way to becoming before the Fuerbringer injury.
Wisconsin’s offense is extremely outside hitter heavy with 80% of all attacks going to an outside hitter in the last two matches. Carter Booth in the middle gets set every so often but all other sets go to Mimi Colyer and Una Vajagic on the left side and backrow or Grace Egan on the right side.
Colyer is the focus. Reduce the impact of Colyer and Wisconsin is very beatable. Colyer is a 6’3” senior outside hitter who transferred in from Oregon. She hits hard and she hits from everywhere. She is very strong out of the backrow but does equal damage in the front.
Nebraska needs to apply the defensive pressure to Colyer that they are so well known for against individual players and against whole teams. Husker blockers take up copious amounts of space directly in front of the attacker and floor defense vacuums up all the junk opponents throw around that block. Nebraska is holding opponents to an average .112 hitting percentage which is good for second in the country for division I teams.
If step one is to limit the effectiveness of Colyer, then step two is to apply service pressure to an average Wisconsin passing team. The 2025 Badger team is different from Badger teams that we are used to facing with Coach Kelly Sheffield at the helm in that they do not have a squad of defensive specialist on the sideline who enter the match a steady clip.
The libero is freshman Kristen Simon and she is the only DS or libero consistently on the court. This means Wisconsin’s serve receive has weaknesses as does the floor defense. In the off season, many of the other former Badger defensive players transferred and landed starting rolls.
Saige Damrow is the libero for Creighton, Gulce Guctekin starts for Tennessee and Lola Schumacher wears the libero jersey at UCLA. These three excellent defensive players are no longer available to Coach Sheffield when his team needs a steady pass or injection of defense.
On Friday night Nebraska servers will target Egan in the serve receive formation. Egan is a right-side hitter transfer from Ohio State. She is prone to errors (getting aced) while passing serve and when she doesn’t make an error her passes are still well off the net.
Huskers will also tend to attack the right back defensive spot as that is where Egan plays defense as well as the substitute freshman setter, Horner. Right back defense is a weak spot for the Badgers, and it is where Huskers should send the ball when all else is defended.
Badger middle blockers are big and defend the middle of the court well. Carter Booth at 6’7” and Alicia Andrew at 6’3” are solid blockers and Nebraska’s setter, Bergen Reilly, is wise to move her middles around to challenge their block to perform on the move. Booth is a senior and you surely remember her from previous years. Andrew is also a senior who transferred from Baylor. These two mainly contribute blocking defense and are set offensively a minimal amount.
What a fun night to nibble on some candy while watching the Huskers beat up on the Badgers. GBR!
#1 Nebraska Cornhuskers (20-0, 10-0 B1G)
#1 Keri Leimbach 5’4” FR DS/L
#2 Bergen Reilly 6’1” JR Setter
#3 Allie Sczech 6’4” SR OPP
#4 Campbell Flynn 6’3” FR Setter
#5 Rebekah Allick 6’4” SR MB
#6 Laney Choboy 5’3” JR DS/L
#7 Maisie Boesiger 5’6” SR DS/L
#8 Kenna Cogill 6’4” FR MB
#9 Virginia Adriano 6’5” FR OPP
#10 Olivia Mauch 5’6” SO DS/L
#11 Teraya Sigler 6’3” FR OH
#12 Taylor Landfair 6’5” SR OH
#14 Manaia Ogbechie 6’3” FR MB
#15 Andi Jackson 6’3” JR MB
#18 Ryan Hunter 6’2” FR OPP
#21 Skyler Pierce 6’2” RS-FR OH
#27 Harper Murray 6’2” JR OH
#11 University of Wisconsin (15-3, B1G 8-2)
#1 Una Vajagic 6’0’’ RS-SO OH
#2 Addy Horner 6’3” FR OPP/Setter
#6 Trinity Shadd-Ceres 5’11’’ FR OH
#7 Kristen Simon 5’8” FR L/DS
#8 Morgan VanWie 5’11’’ SO Setter
#10 Madison Quest 6’3” FR OH
#12 Natalie Wardlow 6’4” FR MB
#13 Jada Cerniglia 5’3” GR DS
#15 Mimi Colyer 6’3” SR OH
#16 Aniya Warren 5’8” FR DS
#17 Alicia Andrew 6’3” RS-SR MB
#18 Maile Chan 5’3’’ SO L/DS
#19 Tosia Serafinowski 6’4’’ SO MB
#23 Grace Lopez 6’1” JR OPP
#24 Charlie Fuerbringer 5’11’’ SO Setter
#32 Grace Egan 6’1” RS-SO OH
#52 Carter Booth 6’7’’ SR MB
