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2023 NCAAVB Championship: #2 Texas vs #1 Nebraska; 2pm ABC (Dec 17)


Js1

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1 hour ago, Assman said:

What an absolute ass kicking. Their serve receive was somehow worse than Wisky's. I mean, the bestest team in the world couldn't do the most basic of volleyball skills. You could hear a God damn pin drop in that barn after every ace. It was glorious. To top it off, we made it back to the team hotel and my kids got pics with all the girls. It was a great scene and something my kids will always remember. Let's make it 3 next year.

Yes... Your "kids" got the pics. Sure. 

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2 hours ago, LonghornSean said:

Can’t quite make it all out, but in set 1 when Skinner was talking to the official after the net violation call on Wenaas, she clearly says something about ”number five” (Allck) and “…watch her mouth”.


Can’t take no shit don’t talk no shit

I've always thought it was amazing how when you're playing you catch all the shit-talking but when you're just watching it's not easy to pick up at all at Gregory or on tv. When I played I knew everything that was going on, but when my boys played, they'd come back after matches telling me about the different guys talking all kinds of shit that I'd never even noticed.

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2 hours ago, Jive Turkey said:

Here’s the clip.  

I really hate Nebraska volleyball.  All of these people thought this match was a foregone conclusion.  And they had to stay and watch their team get dominated.  I hope that Harper Murray never wins a national title.

Welp, she's got the easy part outta the way. Talk is cheap.

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1 hour ago, Js1 said:

Also whoever is scouting serve receive deserves a raise after the last 2 matches. No idea if that’s Elliot himself, Hunt, Le Roux or Sullivan.  Elliot seems to be much more involved in telling our servers what zone to serve to. I don’t recall him doing that much in the past, which means Texas has detailed scouting on opponent serve receive. 

I was telling my 20 yo that I've never seen Elliott identify teams' weaknesses and attack them the way he has this year, esp in this postseason. I dunno what's different, but I sure hope we stick with it.

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2 hours ago, troph said:

It’s beyond satisfying to out class those fuckstains on and off the court. Fuck em. I forgot how much I hate Nebraska. I need to go to the hate thread and confess. 

Volleyball is apparently Nebraska’s best sport…..and Lady Horns just simply took that away from them…..Huskers have been on a pedestal all year….running rough shod over everybody, heads swollen on this young team…..Horn’s experience, muscle and finesse just slapped the crap out of them….they buckled, folded, and were unable to deal with the adversity given them….Elliott and staff called a perfect game, and the Huskers could do absolutely nothing about it.  I expected them to show a little more respect for the beating they took, but doesn’t look like that’s gonna happen.

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1 hour ago, honolulu horn said:

Nebraska fans must REALLY hate Texas. We just keep humiliating them year after year after year, in various and unexpected ways. 

I'm thinking this win must be especially sweet for Texas Deputy AD Shawn Eichorst. He was the Corn AD who was fired for not wanting to hire known POS Scott Frost. They canned him, then he came here to be our Deputy AD under CDC. Then a couple of years later, Corn had to can Frost, because he's a POS. 

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12 hours ago, KingBobo81 said:

Buddy of mine in Tampa for the final saw the Nebraska social media team making their national championship content this morning. Let’s send this to the trash folder.

c2755fe454ed6b78b3c4aa967106b929.jpg

This is an incredible shot. Always wondered how they did this, but duh. Guess they all meet in a cafe and work on their laptops. 

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SIAP: Here's a lengthy article from the Daily Nebraskan. Pretty good analysis:
 

Spoiler

The DN’s coverage of the NCAA volleyball tournament is presented by Atmosphere Lincoln

No. 1 ranked Nebraska faced off against No. 5 Texas in the national championship game in Tampa. Sunday marked the third time the two teams have met in the title game with the Huskers winning the previous two matchups in 1995 and 2015. This time around, it was a different story as Nebraska suffered its second sweep of the season (22-25, 14-25, 11-25). 

The Longhorns came into Sunday with a ton of momentum following their upset win over No. 2 Wisconsin in the Final Four. The Huskers, on the other hand, earned a trip to the big game after their dominant performance over what was a rolling Pittsburgh team on Thursday. 

 
 

With an uncharacteristic performance, the Huskers dropped their 11th national championship appearance as a sixth title continues to elude them. A dream season came to a nightmare end. 

Here are three takeaways and a question from the loss:

Texas’ ace avalanche 

Texas has a superpower. The Longhorns’ victory over No. 2 Wisconsin showcased their incredible serve, a weapon that looked like the best in the sport against the Badgers. 

By serving toward the back line and dropping serves right in front of receivers, Texas was able to completely take away the Badgers’ high-powered offense. Junior outside hitter Madisen Skinner was the leading force as she racked up a record 6 aces to secure her third national title appearance. 

Entering Sunday’s match, Nebraska knew it would have to withstand Texas’ serve which they did a solid job of to start the game. However, the wheels fell off the bus in the second set as the Longhorns tallied a game-high seven aces, throwing the Husker offense out of sync. 

Senior middle blocker Asjia O'Neal showed why she was taken with the first pick in the Pro Volleyball Federation’s draft in the second set. She racked up four aces in a row, fueling an 11-0 run in the set. Texas finished with 12 aces in the game which ultimately ended up being too much for the Huskers to overcome. 

Resilience not enough

Whether down two sets to one against Wisconsin or down 2-0 on the road against Penn State, Nebraska has been able to fight with their backs against the wall this season. 

Once again the Huskers found themselves in that position on Sunday after a rough start put them down 4-0. Nebraska would respond to get back into the set tying it up at 22 after an ace by star freshman outside hitter Harper Murray. However, as was the case throughout most of the day, Texas was able to step on the gas and win the set 25-22. 

 
 

The Huskers had only lost one set in the tournament before Sunday. However, they lost all three against the Longhorns, getting swept for only the second time this season. Hopes of a reverse sweep like they pulled off at Penn State were dashed quickly as Texas maintained a sizable lead in the final set. 

While the set scores may not reflect it, Nebraska never gave up. The Huskers continued to fight and scrap after every point. Murray led the way with seven kills on the day. Perhaps Nebraska’s best play of the night came when Murray jumped on the announcer’s table to keep a ball in play. The commendable effort still ended in a Longhorn point, indicative of the team's struggle all afternoon. 

No offense means no defense 

The Huskers’ weapon all season was their defense as they came into Sunday holding teams to a scarce .096 hitting percentage in the tournament. Texas’ serve systematically broke down the Nebraska offense, stopping it before it started while placing the defense in compromising positions all game. 

It is hard to stay as locked in on defense when you spend the entire game on the ropes. The Huskers were never quite able to gain momentum on offense, playing the majority of the game out of system. This led to Longhorn scoring opportunities in transition. 

Texas hit .264 while holding Nebraska to a horrid .013 clip on Sunday which made a Husker win nearly impossible.

Will they win one?

Sunday’s result was not the one that Nebraska fans had hoped for as the Huskers lost their second national championship game in three years. However cliche it might seem, the Nebraska faithful have a lot to look forward to.

 

Going into Sunday’s match, the team's future was bright regardless of the result. While nothing is promised in sports, as the 2021 team taught us, Nebraska being a dominant force in the sport in the next few years is about as close as you can get. 

The Huskers went 33-2 this season with no graduating seniors on the roster. While that leaves some questions for the construction of next year's team with yet another uberly talented freshman class making their way to Lincoln, it bodes well for Nebraska’s chances moving forward either way. No team has won a national title without having any seniors since Pacific did way back in 1986. 

A hungry team is what fans should expect next season. With another postseason loss to serve as motivation and a young roster with a deep tournament run under their belt, the Huskers will be on the short list of favorites for next year's national championship. 

It’s hard to imagine that some iteration of this Nebraska freshman class will walk away without securing the Huskers’ sixth championship win. For now, fans will have to wait on number six as this year's team mourns the tough loss in Tampa. 



 

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Took forever to find the moment on video but once I did it had to be posted.

14 hours ago, AnTiM said:

The moment I will never forget, Skinner walking toward O'Neil after her long string of serves and screaming ASJIAAAAAAAA!!!  What a pair.

 

ASJIAAAAAA!.jpg

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I don’t care about Lexi anymore. If anything, her leaving led to 17 year old Logan enrolling early and changed Elliot’s recruiting and coaching mindset a little. And that’s fine by me, it’s been a good few years for Texas fans 

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10 minutes ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Agreed, but would you readily admit she has been ridiculously destroyed by many on here, including you? 

Huck wouldn’t know, he’s new. 

Maybe at the beginning when it was still fresh.  It’s been 5 years. Idc about Lexi. I don’t think about her anymore. Why would we need to when we’ve had Logan and Madi? 

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19 minutes ago, smoky said:

Should've asked a follow up question to Cook,

"So are you saying you don't plan on taking a look at any players that enter the portal that might be a good fit for your team?"

Or that Cook did also pursue Carissa Barnes in the offseason? He acts like he doesn't take any transfers at all or even looks at them.  He 100% does. 

He signed what was likely one of the top freshman classes, period, in volleyball.   Murray was #2, Reilly was #4, Choboy was #5, Jurevicius was #7, Jackson was #13.  He was never going to recruit over them via the portal.  And his 2022 class included #6 Becca Allick.  But he did go out and get the top opposite in the portal (Beason). 

Texas signed a good freshman class, but 2 of them redshirted.  Ella is the only freshman who starts.  After Parra left, he had to go out and get an OH (Wenaas), and then we also chose to grab Barnes as a DS because our top weakness has always been passing.  It was not some egregious amount of portal recruiting.

No criticism for conference mate Wisconsin? CC Crawford is from Kansas, Carter Booth is from Minnesota, Sarah Franklin is from Michigan State, Temi Thoma-Ailara is from Northwestern.  

Edited by Js1
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27 minutes ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

That’s my point, people are still infatuated by her. Gone & gone.

Huck wouldn’t know, he’s new to the discussion. 

Infatuated, no. I don't give a shit. It was a counter example the I knew off the top of my head. I'm sure there were more on the Nebraska team last year, but continue to jump to conclusions 

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34 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Or that Cook did also pursue Carissa Barnes in the offseason? He acts like he doesn't take any transfers at all or even looks at them.  He 100% does. 

He signed what was likely one of the top freshman classes, period, in volleyball.   Murray was #2, Reilly was #4, Choboy was #5, Jurevicius was #7, Jackson was #13.  He was never going to recruit over them via the portal.  And his 2022 class included #6 Becca Allick.  But he did go out and get the top opposite in the portal (Beason). 

Texas signed a good freshman class, but 2 of them redshirted.  Ella is the only freshman who starts.  After Parra left, he had to go out and get an OH (Wenaas), and then we also chose to grab Barnes as a DS because our top weakness has always been passing.  It was not some egregious amount of portal recruiting.

No criticism for conference mate Wisconsin? CC Crawford is from Kansas, Carter Booth is from Minnesota, Sarah Franklin is from Michigan State, Temi Thoma-Ailara is from Northwestern.  

I think he’s also considering skinner and akana, not just the most recent transfers. 

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4 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

I think he’s also considering skinner and akana, not just the most recent transfers. 

That's fine - he took Kaitlyn Hord (Penn St) last year from the portal too - to fill a need from a transfer (Caffey).  Cook made his own bed last year with Caffey and Akana and scholarship games. 

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9 hours ago, SamMan said:

Apparently this didn’t post when I hit send earlier. I’d like to add that I was glad Elliott referenced the 2009 match vs PSU in the postgame presser. I was thinking about that very thing during the match. That might be the most traumatic loss I’ve experienced as a fan in any sport, simply because of how great both teams were that year, the 2-0 lead, and seeing it all slip away. Still the best match I’ve ever seen, but getting this one in Tampa felt good.

I was shocked at how much ball-watching Nebraska was doing during the match. Batenhorst probably had the most egregious example, but that whole team looked fucking dazed. No help. No coverage. No communication. I always thought Beason was kind of a spare going back to her UF days, but I was surprised at how little resistance the team put up, even with their youth. I mean, winning a three-set match against the #1 overall seed is really fucking impressive, but that team looked like they wanted no part of the competition from the moment they hit 10 points in the second set.

It is incredible to think about how far this program has come when, as recently as a few short years ago, service pressure was a recurring issue that seemed to be holding the team back each and every year. It dogged Elliott’s teams for ages, but the past two seasons have been an absolute fucking masterclass in that very department. I point it out every time I watch a match. I’m sure everybody around me is sick of hearing about it by now, but it’s the goddamn truth.

I’m very proud of these young women. I can honestly say that the most pleasant surprise for me these last two matches was Barnes. I thought she played outstanding. The stars showed up in the big moments. I believe Skinner and O’Neal have always had championship character. The team as a whole really developed it over the season, and this entire program has developed it over the past few years. The biggest moments don’t faze them anymore. I can’t believe the run they went on. I can’t believe Texas won a championship with a homegrown setter…a true freshman nonetheless. Swindle was everything we (I, at least) expected Shook to be. Congrats to them all. It’s sweet to win it when everybody expects you to, but it is so much sweeter to win it when nobody expects you to. As they say—never underestimate the heart of a champion.

Oh, and John Cook can stay fucking salty. Just a tragic victim of circumstance, I guess. I don’t remember him having a problem taking Lexi Sun back in the day. Bitching about Jerritt Elliott doing his fucking job—optimizing his team—as if it was easy to add, what, six transfers in the spring of ‘22 and get them to gel in 7 months or whatever it was. That’s the same shit he wants to claim credit for with his fucking freshmen, in addition to Beason (his All-American transfer, same number as Texas had this year)..except they all arrived in January. Not to be dismissive of their squad, but the one player that impressed me today was the one not up on that stage—Andi Jackson. She’s good.

I’ll close by saying, I actually like Jon Johnston from Corn Nation (his rants from the bathroom are funny), but I have to admit that watching him sob at the end of his video made me smile, if only because he posted a snotty video when they beat Texas a couple years ago. What a great day.

Apologies for the length.
Happy Holidays and Hook ‘em.

Outstanding... Thx !!! 🤘

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1 hour ago, BurntOrangeBlooded15 said:

What a bitch 

 

Hook’Em girls!  Back to Back!!!

It's a shame that Bill Paxton got reincarnated as a little punk-ass, whiner.  

Nebraska built its entire athletic department foundation on that bullshit "county scholarship" walk-on bullshit with their football team for decades.  That's what made them their money early on and laid the groundwork for the rest of the sports, both men's and women's.  Then playing field gets leveled, Texas owns them across many sports.  Then decades after that, NIL and the Transfer Portal come along.  Texas, along with every other fucking D-1 program, tries to make use of it.  Some of us, Texas in particular, even manage to preserve academic integrity whilst engaged in it.  But Nebraska is magically, once again, the sole athletic department that won't abide this?  While maintaining the academic standards of the University of Phoenix's remedial courses.  Fuck off, Coach.  

The only way to recruit and develop top-level student-athletes in volleyball is have them spend 4 years in Lincoln, fucking, Nebraska at a shit college---the worst of the Big 10...by far?  Okay.  Elliott's the guy doing his job, you must be the other guy.

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