The No. 13 Nebraska volleyball team hosts Southern Mississippi, Villanova and Georgia this weekend at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. The Huskers will take on the Villanova Wildcats on Friday, Sept. 6 at 7 p.m., and will face the Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday, Sept. 7 at 1 p.m. Southern Mississippi will take on Georgia on Friday at 4:30 p.m., and will face Villanova on Saturday at 3 p.m.
Friday’s meeting will be the first between the Huskers and Villanova.
The Huskers hold a 4-0 record over Georgia, last meeting in 2000. The last time the Huskers faced the Bulldogs, the Huskers won in three sets (15-4, 15-2, 15-4).
The Nebraska Athletic Department will honor former Nebraska coach Terry Pettit on Friday, Sept. 6 by naming the court at the Bob Devaney Sports Center “Terry Pettit Court.” The naming is the result of a generous gift given by Bill and Ruth Scott in honor of the former Nebraska head coach.
Pettit was inducted into the AVCA Hall of Fame in 2009 and was a two-time AVCA National Coach of the Year, a seven-time Big Eight Coach of the Year and a two-time Big 12 Coach of the Year. In his 23 years at Nebraska, he guided the Huskers to a national championship in 1995, six Final Four appearances and 21 conference titles.
Fans can listen to all of the action with John Baylor and Diane Mendenhall on the 25-station Husker Sports Network, including B107.3 FM in Lincoln and The Wolf 93.3 FM in Omaha. Fans outside the state will also be able to catch the live audio feed for free on Huskers.com. Saturday’s match will only be available on Huskers.com.
Nebraska’s match on Friday against Villanova will be streamed on the Big Ten Digital Network (BTN.com) and will be available with a subscription. Saturday’s match with Georgia will be streamed on Huskers.com and will be available with a HuskersNside subscription.
VILLANOVA vs. NEBRASKA
Date: Sept. 6
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Lincoln, Neb.
Arena: Bob Devaney Sports Center
Live Stats: Huskers.com
Live Video: BTN.com (subscription)
Live Radio: Husker Sports Network,
Huskers.com
GEORGIA vs. NEBRASKA
Date: Sept. 7
Time: 1 p.m.
Location: Lincoln, Neb.
Arena: Bob Devaney Sports Center
Live Stats: Huskers.com
Live Video: Huskers.com (subscription)
Live Radio: Huskers.com
Scouting the Villanova Wildcats
• Villanova is 1-2 on the season. The Wildcats started the opening weekend of play with a 3-1 loss to Oregon State, a 3-1 win over Oakland and a 3-2 loss to Central Michigan.
• Freshman Claire Crutchfield led the Wildcats last weekend with 32 total kills and an average of 2.46 kills per set. Freshman Michaela Berendt posted 28 kills on the weekend and a .426 attack percentage.
• Sophomore Emma Pettit, daughter of former Nebraska coach Terry Pettit, paces the offense for the Wildcats at setter. She recorded 145 assists over the weekend and has an average of 11.15 assists per set. She tallied 52 assists in Villanova’s win over Oakland.
• Senior Carly Edwards and freshman Michaela Berendt both recorded 10 total blocks on the weekend, with an average of 0.77 blocks per set.
• Josh Steinbach is in his seventh season at the helm of the Wildcats. He is the longest-tenured coach in the program’s 40 years as a varsity sport. He has a career record 99-82 and was the BIG EAST Coach of the Year in his first season at Villanova.
Scouting the Georgia Bulldogs
• Georgia is 3-0 on the year after beating Lipscomb, TCU and Furman in 3-0 sweeps at the Georgia Bulldog Invitational last weekend.
• Sophomore Jasmine Eatmon was named MVP of the Bulldog Invitational after finishing the weekend with 20 kills, three service aces and nine blocks. She hit a team-best .548 clip and averaged one block per set.
• Senior Stacey Smith leads the Bulldogs offensively as she has a total of 24 kills on the year and an average of 2.67 kills per set.
• Junior Kaylee Kehoe paced the Georgia offense over the weekend with a total of 60 assists and an average of 6.67 assists per set.
• Junior Lauren Teknipp and senior Allison Summers were also named to the Georgia Bulldog Invitational all-tournament team for their efforts over the weekend. Teknipp led all players with 10 kills, going 10-for-21 for an attack percentage of .336 against TCU. Summers posted a team-high 34 digs over the weekend, averaging 3.78 digs per set.
• Georgia is coached by former Nebraska assistant coach Lizzy Stemke. She spent four seasons at Nebraska before being hired by Georgia and is in her third season.
Noting the Nebraska Cornhuskers
The information below provides a quick glimpse of a few statistics and brief notes heading into this weekend.
•Nebraska enters this weekend’s matches with a 2-1 record and No. 13 national ranking.
•The Huskers return AVCA Honorable-Mention All-Americans Morgan Broekhuis and Meghan Haggerty in 2013. They also welcomed 2011 AVCA Second-Team All-American Kelsey Robinson and 2011 AVCA Honorable-Mention All-American Mary Pollmiller to the 2013 roster after both transferred from Tennessee.
• Nebraska begins the 2013 season as the second-winningest program in Division I history with 1,168 wins and trails only UCLA (1,184) on the all-time list.
• The Huskers finished tied for second in the Big Ten in 2012. They were picked to finish fourth in the league in the Big Ten Coaches’ preseason poll in 2013.
• Nebraska carries a streak of 181 consecutive sellouts into the 2013 season, the longest sellout streak across all NCAA women’s athletics. The Huskers averaged 4,287 fans per home contest last season at the NU Coliseum.
• Nebraska has seven players on its 2013 roster who were Volleyball Magazine Fab 50 selections, representing the top-50 players in that year’s recruiting class. Six of the Huskers’ last nine recruiting classes have ranked in the top five nationally, including the 2009 class that was ranked second and the 2013 class that was ranked first by Prepvolleyball.com
• Nebraska continued its string of All-America success in 2012, as Lauren Cook was named an AVCA All-American. Cook upped Nebraska’s NCAA-leading totals to 36 players and 74 certificates. Nebraska has had at least one All-American every season since 1983, a total of 31 straight seasons, including 39 All-America awards in Cook’s 13 years at Nebraska.