This is the second of a two-part scouting report of a featured match of the week. You can read my initial scouting report here, which details what each team needed to do to win Wednesday night. If you’re not a volleydork like me, you can read the match recap here.
In the first edition of this particular scouting report, we talked about each teams strengths and weaknesses. Michigan State needed to jump out early with service pressure to keep Nebraska out-of-system. They also needed to win both the serve and serve receive battles. Nebraska needed to stay balanced offensively and take advantage of every error MSU would make to keep their large home crowds engaged and loud.
HOW DID NEBRASKA DO IT?
- Offensive balance
I wrote about this earlier, but I never alluded to what might happen if Mikaela Foecke, the Huskers’ leading attacker, would have an off night (9-7-39, .051). Here is where Nebraska’s balance was shown. Annika Albrecht (18-4-42, .333), Jazz Sweet (10-3-22, .318) and Lauren Stivrins (10-3-28, .250) all stepped up their play in this battle of Big Ten unbeatens.
- Capitalizing on MSU’s errors
It’s one thing to talk about allowing a team to make their errors. Michigan State just finished a successful road trip knocking off both Minnesota and Wisconsin in their houses while both were in the top 10 nationally. They minimized their errors and took advantage of each teams’ out-of-system struggles with their service pressure. Nebraska did what the former two teams couldn’t—the Huskers did not allow an ace to the top serving team in the Big Ten and goaded the Spartans into 9 service errors and 15 unforced hitting errors. Add Nebraska’s 11 blocks to the mix, and that’s 35 points Nebraska didn’t need from their attackers or the service line. If all you need is 75 points to win, and 35 are already produced for you, this becomes a far easier task. Now play that match at home in front of the largest crowd in the Big Ten.
Here’s another fun fact: Nebraska has yet to allow a team to hit over .232 on the season. And that was in a loss to Northern Iowa on a neutral court (OK, maybe Omaha isn’t THAT neutral of a site for the Huskers). That defensive prowess, along with the offensive balance mentioned above, easily puts the Huskers in the Big Ten Conference Champion conversation a quarter of the way through the conference schedule. Up next for the Huskers is a three-match road trip to Iowa (who just beat Michigan), Wisconsin and Purdue. The grind continues.
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