Husker volleyball proves defense is key
Good defense is the key to winning in almost any sport. Last week you saw a team with a strong front line and a great back group play so well that it was the best effort for the season and the Huskers are now leading the nation for defense.
Now for sure, this is not about the Husker football team but the Husker’s women’s volleyball team.
They had 16 blocks in the match against Penn State and in only three sets. Nebraska’s top blocking combination is a two -person effort with middle blocker Kaitlyn Hord and right-side hitter Whitney Lauenstein. Hord is a portal transport from Penn State and she is a good player. Lauenstein is a really good player also and they combined for five of the 16 blocks.
Coach John Cook explained, “That’s why we have them together. Those two are super-athletic, and they work really well together. This isn’t the first time they have shut down left-side hitters this year. That’s a tough block to deal with.”
The Huskers swept Penn State 25-18, 25-22 and 25-9. Penn State has had an outstanding volleyball program for a number of years and it felt really strange not to see retired coach Russ Rose on the bench this year. He always looked like a grumpy old guy but looks are deceiving and he produced winners every year. He coached at Penn State for over four decades and had 1330 Wins, had 17 Big Ten Titles and seven NCAA Championships in his career.
On the football side of things, I would not say they were sliding backward, but they are not consistent and they put themselves in tough situations. Just taking a quick look at the game Saturday, they did do some good things. The special teams played well. They got another blocked kick. The team did not make a lot of mistakes by having penalties. They only had four flags Saturday which is an improvement.
The problem was that the two things you have to do well all of the time didn’t happen all the time. Defense was not good. Open field tackles are missed too many times when it really hurts.
The defense gave up way too many yards in the passing game. When the opposing teams puts up almost 400 yards passing yards, it is going cause problems and it did. Because of our defense, Purdue was able to run over a 100 offense plays almost doubling the number of plays that the Huskers had on their offense.
When it was all said and done the Huskers lost another one score ball game. I still see some things that I think are good. There is some emotion on the field coming from the coaches and players. I think they play pretty hard also. I am starting to wonder if some of the problems are related to talent. I hope the coaching staff can keep it improving and find some way to pick up some W’s.
On a local note, congratulations to the volleyball team in their third-place finish at the SPVA Tournament. Keep up the hard work and improvement.
Also a shout out to the XC team and good luck in the upcoming state, and good luck to the football team as they enter the football playoffs this week. Go Plainsmen!