International Volleyball

Volleyball Today: Huskers hold off Creighton; SMU tops Baylor; 28 kills for Li

Volleyball Today: Huskers hold off Creighton; SMU tops Baylor; 28 kills for Li

Nebraska’s Lindsay Krause blasts through the Creighton block/Nebraska photo

Nebraska and Creighton put on a fabulous early season NCAA volleyball show as the Huskers prevailed in five, the only upset of Tuesday was by SMU over Baylor, and Cal’s Maggie Lee, the 2023 Pac-12 (remember the Pac-12?) freshman of the year had 28 kills in a win over Saint Mary’s.

There are some big intriguing matches Wednesday and MIVA, the men’s volleyball conference, announced its hall of fame class.

Three top matches highlight Wednesday’s slate

There are only 11 matches on Wednesday’s NCAA Division I schedule, but three are well worth watching, starting with new No. 1 Pittsburgh at No. 23. Pitt is just 3-0, with sweeps of Oregon, Long Beach State and Buffalo. USC (3-1) split with Pepperdine to open the season, lost in four at Creighton and then beat Kansas State in four. That match is at 6 p.m. Pacific and marks the Big Ten Network debut of volleyball-announcing icon Paul Sunderland.

Sixth-ranked Texas (2-2), coming off that loss to Miami, is home for Houston, 3-1 and always a tough out. That one starts at 8 p.m. Central and is on ESPN2.

No. 13 Florida (5-1) is at No. 15 Georgia Tech (4-1), and precedes Texas-Houston on ESPN2.

Second-ranked Stanford (5-0) goes to the aforementioned Pepperdine (1-3). The Waves, after losing the two to USC, split at Hawai’i. That one is on ESPN+.

Western Michigan at Michigan State and Northern Colorado at Colorado should be good ones, and so could Iowa at Iowa State. Also on tap are Liberty vs NC State, Binghamton vs. Hofstra, Bryant vs. Holy Cross and Omaha vs. Long Beach State.

Creighton’s Kendra Wait back sets Elise Goetzinger/Sullivan Lawrence

Nebraska holds off Creighton in five

The Big Ten Network got all it could ask for as Nebraska of the Big Ten defeated visiting Creighton of the Big East 25-19, 25-16, 31-33, 16-25, 15-10 in the big Cornhusker State annual battle.

The Huskers (6-1), with five players with nine or more kills, hit .2234 and had two aces and nine serving errors. Creighton (5-1) hit .209 and had four aces and 15 errors.

Norah Sis did nothing to hurt her national player-of-the-year chances as the Creighton outside led with 24 kills, an assist, four blocks and 11 digs. Ava Martin had 17 kills, an assist, an ace, 17 digs and three blocks, one solo. 

But in the fifth set, the Bluejays were no match for Nebraska, which bolted to a 5-1 lead and was in command the rest of the way. The Huskers hit .444 in the fifth.

Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Volleyballmag.com…