Nebraska fueled by last year’s frustration to go for the title again

Nebraska had a nearly perfect year in 2023. From setting an attendance record for women’s sports in the United States with over 90,000 fans watching a match at Memorial Stadium, to winning their fourth Big Ten women’s volleyball title, the Cornhuskers were firing at all cylinders for most of the year.

The team advanced all the way to the National Championship Finals with 33 wins and just one loss, but ended up dominated by Texas, who denied them their sixth national title in Tampa, Florida.

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Despite all the positive memories, it’s that loss in the final that stuck into the players and coaching staff members’ minds and, coming into a new season, is used as fuel for them to put themselves in a position to win the national title again.

“We're the most motivated team in the country right now,” said senior outside hitter Lindsay Krause. “We left a lot out on that court, and I think we're all really fired up. I think we're balancing things stuck in the past while at the same time using them to fuel our future. I think we have found that healthy balance, and I think that's really making us all so excited to get back in the gym.”

Since their last national title, in 2017, Nebraska have returned to the final on three occasions (2018, 2021 and 2023), but haven’t been able to lift the trophy again. To head coach John Cook, there’s only one way of accomplishing their goal in 2024.

“What's really on my mind right now is how are we going to better our skills from last year,” he reflected. “So how are we going to become a better serving team, a better passing team. We broke down in the Finals last year, and there are other times we broke down, so how are we going to get better in those areas. Then also getting them to understand how much competition there's going to be this year. Every match is going to be a very challenging match in different ways.”

Competition in the Big Ten indeed tends to be stronger than ever this season as four very strong teams from the West Coast (UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington) moved into the conference, making what was already a highly competitive division even more challenging.

“I think we're just going to get to see teams play against each other that we haven't seen a lot,” senior setter Kennedi Orr reacted. “I know growing up, especially a lot of teams when I was growing up, were winning National Championships like UCLA, Washington, and now we get to see them integrated in the Big Ten, and I think that's really cool. I'm just really excited to see the competition. It's going to be an insane year.”

So far, Nebraska has been handling the competition well as they have 14 wins and just one loss this season and are undefeated in Big Ten play with four victories, having already topped both UCLA and USC.

This week, the Cornhuskers will play twice at home, facing Purdue on Friday at 19:30 local time (00:30 GMT, Saturday) and Rutgers on Saturday at 19:00 local time (00:00 GMT, Sunday) – the second match will be streamed live for VBTV subscribers around the world.