Pitchin With Pritch: Nebraska’s a volleyball state
The State of Nebraska had two college volleyball teams fighting to get a national championship back to their respective campuses this past week. But each one of them came up just a little short. The University of Nebraska at Kearney was undefeated during the regular season and got all the way to finals but lost in 4 to Cal State San Bernardino team. The Division two NCAA champion was undefeated also so one team was going to lose their first game of the season. Even though being runner-up on a national level isn’t all that bad, it is still hard to live with for a while at least.
I can attest to the fact that having an undefeated team get to the subdistricts, district finals or state finals and losing is very difficult to think about.
When you think about it, the season was a great success but coaches and teams sometimes think the season was a failure because you didn’t win it all.
It isn’t but I know that in my case, I have only watched the Lincoln Christian tape one time and that game was a number of years ago.
The University of Nebraska at Lincoln’s volleyball team had another outstanding season and they didn’t win the Big 10 or get to the final four.
However, they competed against some of the best volleyball teams in the nation and they ended the season at 28-5. Three of those losses came to Wisconsin—the team that defeated them again Saturday to move into the final four.
The Husker Volleyball program is one of the best in the nation.
They have won at least 28 games in a season the last five straight years, and this year was the first year since 2014 that they didn’t get to the final four.
Coach John Cook is 83-21 in his NCAA Tournament coaching appearances. That ranks him third in NCAA history in tournament coaching victories.
Wisconsin was the better team this year and a three-match sweep of Nebraska is something that doesn’t happen often. The last time was 2009 when Texas accomplished the feat.
Nebraska has everyone back from this team so just maybe they will get it all done next season. Great expectations, great coach and great players. If you throw in a little good luck, 2020 might be another big year for the Huskers.
Another UNL program that is off to a good start this season is the women’s basketball team. Last Saturday they defeated Oral Roberts at PBA and that improved their record to 9-1.
The basketball women did have a little bad luck seep into the program as junior Taylor Kissinger from Minden, will be out the rest of the season due to a hip injury that will require surgery. In her last game Kissinger had 19 points and hit six 3-pointers in the Husker’s win over Duke.
The Husker men’s basketball team may be making some improvements.
Last Friday they traveled to Indiana and played a 9-1 Indiana team and scored 90 points but lost in overtime 96-90.
Sometimes there are some positive things that happen in a loss.
The Huskers came back to Lincoln, got in about 2:30 Saturday morning, had a light practice on Saturday afternoon and then played Purdue on Sunday afternoon at PBA. Maybe the Huskers put together a program-building effort in defeating the Boilermakers.
Behind Cam Mack’ first-ever triple double, the Husker’s put together their best game of the season, picking up the 70-56 win.
The Huskers had a 15-point lead early in the game, but let Purdue get back to within two late. The Huskers closed the game out with a 12-0 run for the victory.
Dachon Burke led Nebraska in scoring hitting four 3-pointers and scoring 18 points. Thorir Thorbjarnarson chipped in with 13 points and 5 rebounds. ( My spell-check just went nuts with Thorir name)
The Huskers, I thought, played better as a unit and got some easy shots as well as hitting a number of 3-pointers.
I also thought their defense was better and if that keeps improving, things that are classified as good could happen down the road.
The Huskers do not have a lot of talented big post players while most of the opponents in the Big 10 will have some good players in that position.
Just hope the Huskers keep on improving and will be playing their best ball at the end of the season.