The top teams of the women's college volleyball season thus far, No. 1 Wisconsin and No. 2 Nebraska will meet tonight in Lincoln (B1G Network, 7:00 Central). The teams have identical records of 18-0 overall and 9-0 in conference. Tickets reportedly were going for as much as $250. Below, I'll comment live on the match.
Nebraska takes Game 1, 25-22... The statistic that jumped out at me was the Huskers' .727 side-out rate (16/22) to .640 (16/25) for the Badgers (live stats).
Wisconsin dominates Game 2, 25-17. Badgers' 12 blocks in Game 2 alone help hold Huskers to -.077 hitting in the game (12 kills and 16 attack errors on 52 swings).
UW leads 15-10 in Game 3... Now 20-12... Badgers take it 25-20.
Wisconsin with early lead in Game 4, but Nebraska pulls off 5-0 run to lead 9-6... Now 14-10 Huskers... NU 17-16. I'll have to check the statistics later, but Nebraska rarely seems to be setting the middle at all... Wisconsin now ahead 18-17, as Huskers hit some balls out of bounds... 20-18 Badgers... 21-18... Calling a time-out NU coach John Cook looks cooked! New life for Nebraska, as it ties the game 21-all, only to have Wisconsin go up 22-21... 23-all... Kill for Badgers, 24-23... Equalizer kill for Huskers... Lift on UW for 25-24 NU lead. Huskers take it 26-24 on a Wisconsin overpass blocked back down.
Game 5: Badgers off to 5-3 lead... Now 6-5 UW... 8-6 Badgers... 10-8 Wisconsin... 11-9 UW... 12-10 Badgers on Husker service error... Even at 12-12... Time-out... 13-12 Huskers. Swings that were not reaching the floor earlier are now doing so for NU. 14-12 Nebraska... Badger kill to stay alive, 14-13... Match well over the three-hour mark... Per TV announcers, NU hitting .524 in Game 5, UW .500... Nebraska air-mails kill-attempt, 14-all... Huskers challenging whether there was a Badger net violation... And video review shows there was, NU wins 15-13...
Badgers outhit (.217-.130) and outblock (18-7) the Huskers, but get the "L." The teams will play a rematch November 24 in Madison and, quite possibly, will meet for a third time in the NCAA title match.
Postscript: The Wisconsin-Nebraska match drew over 600,000 viewers on the Big Ten Network, an amazing number considering that BTN is generally available only in the home regions of B1G schools and as an added purchase by viewers in other areas.
PREGAME NOTES
The Badgers lead the conference in hitting percentage (for all matches, not just B1G) at .315, with the Huskers in second at .297. The ranks are reversed for opponents' hitting percentage, with NU allowing a microscopic .123 and UW just behind at .143 (conference statistics page).
Nebraska directs most of its sets to outside hitters Merritt Beason (516 attack attempts) and Harper Murray (481 attempts, meaning that the two have nearly taken a combined 1,000 swings on the season. The two have nearly identical hitting percentages on the season, .283 and .285, respectively. In the middle position, Andi Jackson adds a .415 hitting percentage on 224 swings (Husker stats).
For Wisconsin, OH Sarah Franklin carries the hitting load, recording a .292 hitting percentage on 602 swings. Six-foot-nine Anna Smrek patrols the middle, hitting .418 on 316 attempts (Badger stats).
