Huskers Begin Season at AVCA First Serve Showcase
Huskers.com
Nebraska will take part in a primetime season-opening event, the AVCA First Serve Showcase, on Tuesday, August 27 at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky.
No. 2 Nebraska will play in the first match of the Division I season, taking on No. 9 Kentucky at 6 p.m. (CT). Wisconsin will face Louisville in the second match of the doubleheader. All four teams participating in the AVCA First Serve Showcase are ranked in the Top 10 of the AVCA Preseason Coaches Poll. The matches will be televised on ESPN2.
ABOUT THE HUSKERS
- Nebraska finished the 2023 season at 33-2 (19-1 Big Ten) and reached the NCAA Championship match, falling 3-0 to Texas in Tampa, Florida.
- The Huskers won the Big Ten Championship for the first time since 2017, and head coach John Cook was named AVCA National Coach of the Year and Big Ten Coach of the Year.
- With four freshmen in the lineup, the Huskers won their first 27 matches of the season and held the No. 1 ranking from Oct. 23 through the end of the regular season.
- The Huskers, who had no seniors on the roster in 2023, return 10 letterwinners, including every starter.
- Opposite hitter Merritt Beason (first team), libero Lexi Rodriguez (first team), setter Bergen Reilly (second team) and outside hitter Harper Murray (third team) were AVCA All-America selections in 2023.
- Beason was the AVCA North Region Player of the Year, and Murray was both the AVCA North Region and Big Ten Freshman of the Year. Reilly was the Big Ten Setter of the Year, and Rodriguez was the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year for the second time.
- The Huskers bring back 86.5 percent of their kills from 2023, 99.7 percent of their assists, 100 percent of their service aces, 96.2 percent of their digs and 79.4 percent of their blocks.
- Nebraska brought in two new additions via the transfer portal in the offseason in Minnesota outside hitter Taylor Landfair and San Diego middle blocker Leyla Blackwell. Landfair, a 6-5 outside hitter from Plainfield, Illinois, is a senior for the Huskers hut has two years of eligibility remaining after receiving a medical hardship for the 2021 season. Landfair was the Big Ten Player of the Year and an AVCA First Team All-American in 2022 at Minnesota after 4.36 kills per set on .257 hitting with 1.63 digs per set. Blackwell, a 6-4 middle blocker from San Diego, California, was a three-time All-West Coast Conference selection at San Diego and averaged 2.25 kills and 1.24 blocks per set with a .329 hitting percentage last season. Blackwell guided the Toreros to the NCAA semifinals in 2022 by shattering the school record for single-season block assists (152), and she finished sixth nationally at 1.50 blocks per set.
- Nebraska has two freshmen on the roster who enrolled in January and played during the beach volleyball season. Skyler Pierce is a 6-2 outside hitter from Lenexa, Kansas and Olivia Mauch is a 5-6 libero from Bennington, Nebraska. Both Pierce and Mauch tied for the team lead with 18 wins during the beach volleyball season.
SCOUTING KENTUCKY
- Nebraska is 11-2 against Kentucky all-time. The Huskers have won 10 matches in a row in the series, including a 3-1 win in Lincoln last year.
- Kentucky's last win against Nebraska was in 1983.
- Nebraska head coach John Cook has faced off against Kentucky head coach Craig Skinner, a Nebraska assistant from 2000 to 2004, six times. The Huskers have won all six matches, three in sweeps and three in four sets.
HALL OF FAME COACH JOHN COOK IN YEAR 25 AT NU
- Nebraska head coach John Cook is in his 25th season as the Nebraska volleyball head coach in 2024. He has led the Huskers to four national championships, 11 Final Fours, 13 conference championships and 22 Top-10 final rankings since 2000.
- Cook has 850 career wins and is one of the all-time winningest coaches in NCAA history. Since taking over the program in 2000, Cook has led the Huskers to a nation-leading .873 winning percentage (689-100).
- Under Cook, the Huskers have achieved 68 AVCA All-Americans and 20 CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, both among the best in the nation. He is a three-time AVCA National Coach of the Year, earning the prestigious honor in 2000, 2005 and 2023, and an eight-time conference coach of the year, including Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2016, 2017 and 2023.
- In 2023, Cook was voted AVCA National Coach of the Year and Big Ten Coach of the Year after leading a young Nebraska team with no seniors to its first Big Ten title since 2017. The Huskers finished the regular season 28-1 overall, their best regular season record since going 28-1 in 2005. After going 26-6 last year and missing the NCAA regional finals for the first time since 2011, the Huskers started over with a starting lineup featuring four true freshmen and a junior transfer (Beeson). Cook's Huskers won their first 27 matches of the season and held the No. 1 ranking from Oct. 23 through the end of the regular season. Despite having no seniors on the roster for just the second time in Cook's 24 years at Nebraska -- as well as starting a true freshman at setter for only the second time in Cook's tenure -- the Huskers earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016 and the sixth time overall under Cook.
- Cook was inducted into the AVCA Hall of Fame in 2017, joining former Husker volleyball coach Terry Pettit in the Hall.
