Husker Volleyball: Red-White Match Thoughts

On Sunday, the 16th, Husker Volleyball played their annual Red-White match, but this year was a little different. With growing demand, and some construction in Devaney, the match was held at PBA with 11,000 fans in attendance to get a first look at this years highly touted team.

Even though there is a lot of hype surrounding the team again this year, they might be starting at a little bit of a different point than last season. Fans have started to read into DBK’s post match interview, with the teams understanding as well, that this year’s group is a little further away from its potential at the start of the season than they were last year.

Everyone knew the team was going to look different this year, but also have a lot of the same. If you think about it, we really only lost 2 starters: Rebekah Allick and Taylor Landfair. These are 2 very strong losses, but this Husker team is so deep that we probably won’t notice a weakness at those spots.

According to DBK, we have one of, if not, the best middles group in the country. Our outsides are also one of the top groups as well. It could very well end up being an advantage that we aren’t as close to our potential at the start of the season because we can fine tune those mistakes before the moments that matter, unlike last year. Even though what happened leading up to that Texas A&M match was just a lot of bad luck, the team hadn’t dealt with much adversity during the season so they could’ve not known how to deal with it.

Going into the red-white match, everyone likes to see the starting lineups when they come out because it can very well be a sign of which team is the “starters” and which team are the ones competing for spots. While this usually isn’t the case, people, once again, tried to read into things.

The starters for the Red Team were Manaia Ogbechie, Virginia Adriano, Keoni Williams, Bergen Reilly, Harper Murray, Skyler Pierce, and Laney Choboy.

The starters for the White Team were Andi Jackson, Ryan Hunter, Kenna Cogill, Campbell Flynn, Gabby DiVita, Teraya Sigler, and Olivia Mauch.

This left only Keri Leimbach and Jayden Robinson on the bench. For Leimbach, coming off of the bench will probably be what she will get used to during matches. For Robinson, there are still unknowns about where she could be this season with the OH room she is apart of.

Just by looking at the numbers, both teams struggled on offense during the match, but this is something people should kind of expect to happen in this type of match. They are playing their own teammates. They know each others tendencies, where they like to hit the ball, what sets work best for them, etc. It should be hard to score on your own team because of this. The same goes with their defense. While it looked very, very good already, we need to see it against real competition to get the best analysis of it.

While there were points it looked like the sets were shaky, hitters were off, or whatever critique the keyboard warriors on their couches were pointing out, we have to remember this is their first time out in the fall season. Now that DBK has seen them, she will look to adjust issues before their first match on the 27th. We also have to remember their first matches are exhibition. There’s no question that we want to sweep that first weekend, but the matches won’t count against our record. They will be good tune ups for the Texas match in the days following.

After watching the scrimmage, I am adjusting my starting line up that DBK could have in their first matches. For the games in Dallas, the lineup could look a little different while she might still be trying to decide. When the UNLV match gets here, though, we will have our starting lineup.

Setter: Bergen Reilly – No question here as she is one of the top, if not the top, setter in the nation

Middles: Andi Jackson and Manaia Ogbechie – Jackson is a no brainer to be a starter and I believe Ogbechie won her spot this past weekend with her 13 blocks and 6 kills. Cogill comes in a close 3rd as she had a very good match too.

Outsides: Harper Murray and Jayden Robinson – Murray was another no brainer. Robinson came alive this weekend showing how powerful she is at the net. DBK has also said Robinson is the best blocking pin on the team. Sigler could also be heavily considered for the other OH spot as well.

Libero: Laney Choboy – She played a great match this past weekend and said that she finally played free and like herself again.

DS: Olivia Mauch – You can’t have a player like Mauch on your roster and not play her. She’ll probably be the DS for most of the season and will finally get that libero jersey in her senior season.

These are just my predictions and what we could possibly see. Everyone has their own opinions and thoughts are what the lineup could look like!

The Huskers will play their first exhibition, of 2 possible, in 9 days on August 27th against Florida in Dallas, TX. SMU and Penn State are also in this Spikes Under the Lights Showcase. Nebraska will need to beat Florida to be able to take a shot at one of the other teams.