Nebraska senior Justine Wong-Orantes, already with a VolleyMob National Player of the Week honor under her belt this season, has broken the Nebraska all-time career digs record.
Playing against long-time rivals Penn State on Friday, Wong-Orantes picked up 23 digs. Her 16th of those, midway through the 3rd set, pulled her past 2016 U.S. Olympian Kayla Banwarth for the most in program history. Banwarth had 1,706 in her career, and Wong-Orantes ended Friday with 1,713.
Earlier this year, Wong-Orantes broke the school record with 35 digs in a single match during a 5-set win over Minnesota.
The senior Libero from Cypress, California has 306 digs on the season at a pace of 4.1 per set. That’s a slower pace than the 4.5 she averaged last year, but is still above her career average.
Year-by-year Digs
- 2013 (freshman) – 399 (3.50/set)
- 2014 (sophomore) – 464 digs (3.85/set)
- 2015 (junior) – 555 digs (4.55/set)
- 2016 (senior) – 306 digs (4.19/set)*
* – current season
Wong-Orantes is still well back in the all-time NCAA Division I rankings for Digs – Lara Newberry of Chattanooga recorded 483 between 2005 and 2008. The Big Ten record belongs to Paula Gentil of Minnesota, who had 2,791 from 2002-2005 – also likely out of Orantes’ reach.
Nebraska has 7 more regular season games to go for Orantes to extend her all-time Husker record, plus an NCAA tournament where the unanimous-#1 team is expected to make a deep run. That leaves her with an outside chance at eclipsing 2000 career digs by the end of the season.
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