#1 Nebraska vs. #6 Texas A&M
When: Sunday, December 14th at 2 pm CT
Where: Devaney Sports Center, Lincoln, NE
Watch: ABC
Radio: Husker Radio Network
Live stats
Texas A&M is a very senior heavy team. Six of the seven starters are seniors. They are motivated by the desire to continue to wear the A&M uniform, and showed some real urgency to earn another match when
they took Louisville down in a reverse sweep on Friday night.
You probably watched that reverse sweep happen, waiting for the Husker match to start. The Aggies were in control for most of sets one and two but did not find a way to earn the last five points faster than Louisville did. Louisville trailed in both opening sets but came from behind to win them.
Those set one and two losses really could have been completely deflating, but instead Texas A&M fought back winning set three decisively, which created momentum that carried on to wins in the next two sets.
Nebraska’s head coach Dani Busboom Kelly talked at the end of the night how a reverse sweep can give a team so much confidence. She was pleased that her team who, in their moment, won in three sets as she said it was what they needed but A&Ms reverse sweep may have been just what the Aggies needed.
Now, Nebraska and Texas A&M meet Sunday afternoon in the Devaney Center at 2 pm for the right to go to Kansas City and continue to compete for the National Championship.
Nebraska and Texas A&M are similar in their style of play at the net. They are physically imposing teams that beat you by going over your block and overpowering your defense with pounded shots. Sure, they can both use finesse and practiced shots, but the strength of both offenses is the power and height in which they play.
When you play a team like Indiana or Creighton, they are going to try to beat you with speed and then well-placed attacks. Their strength as a team is different than that of Nebraska, and A&M is more like Nebraska. Which means the Huskers may have some difficulties simply trying to beat A&M at their own game. The Huskers simply need to have a better plan.
The Aggies can absolutely be better as we consider position by position and who lines up as the opposing blocker in this match. This first person the scouting report is designed to defend against when you play Texas A&M is 6’3” left-handed opposite attacker, Logan Lednicky. She had 53 attempts and 20 kills against Louisville. She attacks in the front and back row and she will earn plenty of kills.
Nebraska’s left side attackers, Taylor Landfair and Harper Murray are critical to slowing Lednicky. Landfair and Murray have to set up their side of the block directly in front of Lednicky. Don’t let her get too far inside or outside the middle of your body. Then Rebekah Allick and Andi Jackson have to be hip to hip with the left side in order to close any space between hands. Holes in blocks are always bad news but against Lednicky they are a guaranteed point for the Aggies.
Lednicky plays next to Aggies middle blocker Ifenna Cos-Okpalla. She is an offensive threat and at 6’2” with a good leap she is hitting over and around blockers. She and her teammate Morgan Perkins will be one of the be better middle combinations Nebraska has faced this season.
Nebraska’s middles are the best middle combination in college volleyball, so they are up for the challenge. In her postgame interview with ESPN, Allick said she couldn’t wait for Sunday and the great volleyball they would play. She believes Nebraska plays their best when they are up against high quality opponents.
The Aggies play 6’3” senior Emily Hellmuth and 5’11” sophomore Kyndal Stowers on the left side. They will receive less sets than Lednicky on the right side, but these two players carry a heavy offensive load for the Aggies. The blockers in front of Hellmuth and Stowers are Bergen Reilly and Virginia Adriano on the right and again Jackson and Allick in the middle.
They just need to get block touches. Slow the ball down and allow the stupendous defenders in Nebraska’s backcourt to pick up the ball. Hellmuth and Stowers need not be stuff-blocked. Huskers can dig them and let the Husker offense go to work.
Offense vs offense Nebraska has the win and the ability to beat the Aggies but the real separation between these two teams comes in the positions that don’t actually score the points: defensive specialist, liberos and setters.
There is no doubt the Huskers are better than the Aggies in the backrow with the superior play of Laney Choboy, Olivia Mauch, Teraya Sigler on serve receive and defense and Reilly in her ability to elevate the play of her hitters. Conversely, Nebraska will work to serve aggressively as they always do but with the reality that it should be disruptive specifically to this A&M team.
Nebraska can and will earn aces against their serve receive. Huskers will also just cause trouble and force Aggies setter, Maddie Waak, to run. If she is on the run, she has a much harder time setting middles Cos-Okpalla and Perkins as well as getting a fast back set to Lednicky. Serving will be a factor in this match.
One more key skill in this match is the Aggies blocking. It is a strength of their team, and the leader of this charge is middle blocker Cos-Okpalla. She had 12 blocks against Louisville and when she is blocking next to Lednicky it is a formidable block. All this means is the Husker hitters must raise their shot game and make the smart short when those four hands are up and solid.
As it should the level of competition is getting better every match for the Huskers. The Aggies will present a challenging opponent that will have the Husker playing the high-level volleyball we love to watch. Let’s see just how good this Nebraska team can be! GBR!
Below is the remaining schedule for the tournament throughout the month of December. Check out the NCAA bracket here.
- December 18th – Final Four (Semifinals) (TV: ESPN)
- December 21st – National Championship (TV: ABC at 2:30pm CST)
Third Round Matches
December 11th (# are seeds in the last AVCA Coach’s Poll)
#11 Creighton Defeated #8 Arizona State 3-1
#2 Kentucky Defeated Cal Poly 3-0
#4 Pitt Defeated #17 Minnesota 3-0
#12 Purdue Defeated #7 SMU 3-1
December 12th
#3 Texas Defeated #15 Indiana 3-0
#10 Wisconsin Defeated #5 Stanford 3-1
#6 Texas A&M Defeated #9 Louisville 3-2
#1 Nebraska Defeated #16 Kansas 3-0
Fourth Round Matches
December 13th
#2 Kentucky Defeated #11 Creighton 3-0
#4 Pitt Defeated #12 Purdue 3-1
December 14th
#1 Nebraska vs #6 Texas A&M 2:00 pm CT on ABC
#3 Texas vs #10 Wisconsin 6:30 pm CT ESPN
#1 Nebraska Cornhuskers (33-0, 20-0 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
Key Wins: Kentucky, Pitt, Wisconsin
Key Losses: None
NCAA Path: LIU 3-0, Kansas State 3-0, #16 Kansas 3-0
#6 Texas A&M Aggies (26-4, 14-1 SEC)
#1 Ifenna Cos-Okpalla 6’2” SR MB
#2 Addi Applegate 5’5” FR L/DS
#3 Tatum Thomas 5’6” SR L/DS
#4 Emily Hellmuth 6’3” SR OH
#5 Lexi Guinn 6’0” SR OH
#6 Taryn Morris 6’3” FR OH
#7 Djurdju Stanojevic 6’1” FR MB
#8 Amare Hernandez 5’11’ FR OH
#9 Logan Lednicky 6’3” SR OPP
#10 Margot Manning 5’10” JR Setter
#11 Taylor Humphrey 6’3” SR OH
#12 Ava Underwood 5’7” SR L/DS
#14 Kirra Musgrove 6’2” FR Setter
#16 Maddie Waak 5’10” SR Setter
#20 Megan Fitch 6’2” FR OH
#21 Morgan Perkins 6’1” SR MB
#37 Kyndal Stowers 5’11” SO OH
Key Wins: Louisville, Texas, Minnesota
Key Losses: Texas (SEC Tournament), Kentucky, TCU, SMU
NCAA Path: Campbell 3-0, #20 TCU 3-1, #9 Louisville 3-2
