Breaking a 23-year-old school record in the middle of a match didn’t seem to faze Justine Wong-Orantes.
The senior libero came up with 35 digs in Nebraska’s five-set thriller over No. 3 Minnesota (26-24, 25-18, 26-24, 25-22, 15-8) on Sunday — one more than Maria Hedbeck recorded against Penn State in September 1993.
“I honestly didn’t even know; I was so zoned into the game and just getting my teammates good digs,” she told The Daily Nebraskan.
Wong-Orantes’s back-row finesse was instrumental in helping the No. 1 Huskers (18-1, 9-1 Big Ten) to a season-high 76 kills — and a win that will surely keep them atop the rankings.
“We had some ups and downs throughout the whole match, but I think we just fought together as a whole team, and it was really great to see just offseason paying off and what we did in the summer,” Wong-Orantes told The Omaha World-Herald. Everything truly came out in that match.”
She also added a team-high 15 digs in Friday’s sweep of No. 4 Wisconsin (25-21, 25-22, 25-15).
Despite her senior status, Wong-Orantes isn’t likely to leave the court anytime soon. Head coach John Cook told The World-Herald earlier this season that Wong-Orantes is playing at a level high enough to potentially earn a starting spot on Team USA.
And her leadership abilities and deep knowledge of the game are part of an idea foundation to someday be a coach.
“She’s obviously very interested in [coaching],” teammate Kenzie Maloney told The World-Herald. “It’s kind of funny, it’s kind of turned into a joke almost. She knows all the technical stuff. She knows all the reading parts of the game. I think she’d be really awesome at it.”
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