Thursday, September 27, 2007
A sold out crowd at the Horejsi Family Athletics Center saw a team they will never forget.
The Nebraska volleyball team is the No. 1 team in the nation for a reason and the Jayhawks found out why Wednesday evening. Kansas lost 30-18, 30-24, 30-18 against the Cornhuskers after coming off of two Big 12 victories.
The returning national champions made a case on why they can do it once again this year. They dominated the Jayhawks in every aspect of the game, including out hitting them 53 kills to 31. They found every hole that was on the other side of the floor.
A big positive for the Jayhawks was the return of junior Natalie Uhart to the lineup. She helped the team in many ways during the three games including seven kills.
“She raises everyone’s game a level because she’s a great communicator, a great competitor and a great teammate,” coach Ray Bechard said. “I was very surprised with her performance. I expected there to be a lot more rust, because we weren’t sure if she could come back quite this soon. She’s been practicing extremely well, and today she told me she felt good and said she was ready to play.”
As long as she can stay healthy from here on out, this match will just be a bump in the road, and the Jayhawks should look to use her as one of their main weapons.
With the return of Uhart, the team played without sophomore Brittany Williams who has played a major role for the team this year.
Freshmen Jenna Kaiser and Karina Garlington provided sparks for the team, each having a couple big hits to break Nebraska’s momentum at times. In game two, Kaiser had two big kills that helped bring the Hawks closer, but it wasn’t enough in the end.
“We all expected them to be good and do things well,” said Kaiser. “That’s exactly what we got. They are some of the best players I’ve competed against.”
Nebraska was led by Jordan Larson and last year’s national player of the year Sarah Pavan who combined for 25 kills. These are two of the best players that the Jayhawks have faced this year. But as a team, the Cornhuskers worked together using their depth, and didn’t make the little mistakes that the Jayhawks made, which they took full advantage of to pull out the victory in three straight games.
Nebraska moved its record to 11-0 for the year, and if they keep playing like this, not even a semi truck could stop them.
Playing a team like Nebraska will be good for the Jayhawks in the long run. They know what they have to do to reach that next level and become one of the top teams in the Big 12 and in the country. They just can’t make the mistakes that they made.
Don’t worry too much. Not every team is as dominate as Nebraska. The Kansas Volleyball team will look past this and continue to improve and start another winning streak for the year in hopes of making the NCAA tournament for the third time in four years. Who knows, the Jayhawks may be the team you will never forget come tourney time.
— Edited by Kaitlyn Syring
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Comments
Volleyball team blown away by Cornhuskers
kaitlyn, just wanted to let you know you used dominate instead of dominant. where's your editors?
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