Nebraska volleyball earns four Big Ten Yearly Awards with six All-Big Ten selections
Nebraska volleyball caps off a historic Big Ten season with four Big Ten Yearly Awards. NU won the conference and went 19-1 during the regular season. They enter the post-season 28-1.
Husker Head Coach John Cook is the Big Ten Coach of the Year. Three of his players earned three of the four player awards. Libero Lexi Rodriguez is the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year for the second time in three seasons. Setter Bergen Reilly is the conference’s first freshman Setter of the Year. Outside hitter Harper Murray earned the Freshman of the Year award.
Four Huskers were selected on the All-Big Ten first team, two made the second team and three were on the All-Freshman team.
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NU received the most Big Ten Yearly awards and had the most All-Big Ten players. They led the conference with 13 separate awards/honors.
Wisconsin outside hitter Sarah Franklin was the Big Ten Player of the Year. She averaged 4.17 kills per set and 4.64 points per set. Both stats rank her fifth in the conference. The 6-foot-4 hitter was named the Big Ten Player of the Week three times in 2022.
Nebraska opposite hitter Merritt Beason led the conference with four conference Player of the Week awards.
Big Ten Coach of the Year
John Cook is the Big Ten Coach of the Year for the first time since 2017. He earned the award from the coaches and the media. Cook was named the conference’s coach of the year in 1997, 2016 and 2017. The 1997 award was went he was coaching at Wisconsin.
The Husker head coach of 24 years added six new players to his roster this season. Five of those players were freshmen and Merritt Beason transferred in from Florida. He still found a way to win the Big Ten Championship for the first time since 2017.
NU has four freshmen and Beason, who all start or have huge roles on this squad. Cook and his coaching staff also have a freshman setter, Bergen Reilly.
Despite the inexperience the Huskers started the season 27-0. They took down Stanford and Kentucky in the non-conference schedule. Both teams are now the top 2 seeds in the NCAA Tournament.
Cook also led Nebraska to its first win over Wisconsin since 2017. NU won in five sets (25-22, 17-25, 20-25, 26-24, 15-13).
The Huskers lead the conference in kills per set (14.16), assists per set (13.10), opponent hitting percentage (.141), opponent assists per set (9.64), opponent kills per set (10.28), opponent service aces per set (0.74) and opponent digs per set (11.36).
NU led the country in opponent hitting percentage for the entire season before dropping to third after losing to Wisconsin.
Nebraska is the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2016 and for the sixth time overall. NU has appeared in 42 straight NCAA tournaments.
Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year
Nebraska libero Lexi Rodriguez is the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year for the second time. She also won the award as a freshman in 2021. The 5-foot-5 Illinois native was the Defensive Player of the Week twice this season.
Rodriguez is the second Husker to win two Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year awards. Justine Wong-Orantes won in 2015 and 2016
The junior has averaged 3.60 digs per set over 102 sets played so far this season. Rodriguez’s digs per set ranks her No. 10 in the Big Ten.
Although her dig numbers weren’t very high, the captain highly impacted each match. Because she is so good at passing and digging teams game plan to avoid her as much as possible.
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Rodriguez is statistically the best passer in the conference and the country. On serve-receive, she passes a 2.45 on a three-point scale, according to VolleyMetrics. Of her 312 passes so far in 2023, 66.7 percent of her passes are good.
NU also has another libero-level talent player, Laney Choboy, in the back row with Rodriguez for three rotations.
The libero recorded double-digit digs in 22 of Nebraska’s 29 matches. She had a season-high 19 digs at Iowa in three sets. Rodriguez had 18 digs against Kentucky, Indiana and Penn State.
Rodriguez has 367 digs, 126 assists and 13 aces this season. She also does a great job of setting on second contact in out-of-system plays.
In a conference and team full of great defensive players, Rodriguez has been the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year twice in the last three seasons.
Big Ten Setter of the Year
Nebraska freshman setter Bergen Reilly is the first freshman setter to win the Big Ten Setter of the Year award. She was also a unanimous First-team honoree and All-Freshman team pick.
Reilly has done a phenomenal job running the No. 1 team’s offense. In spite of her age, the Sioux Falls, SD native is extremely poised in every situation. Her steady setting and demeanor have been a huge boost to this offense.
The freshman led the conference with 10.74 assists per set. Her numbers ranked her No. 13 in Division I volleyball. Mac Podraza, the 2022 Big Ten Setter of the Year, was second with 10.42 assists per set.
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Reilly helped Nebraska lead the conference with 13.10 assists per set. NU is ranked No. 12 in assists per set in the nation. They are sixth in the Power Six teams.
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The Husker setter was named the Big Ten Setter of the Week four times and the Big Ten Freshman of the Week twice. Podraza and Indiana setter Camryn Hayworth both received the conference setter of the week award three times.
Reilly had a season-high 54 assists in NU’s five-set win over Purdue. She had 11 matches with over 40+ assists. The setter has helped Nebraska to a .282 hitting percentage thus far, ranking them No. 2 in the conference behind Wisconsin.
NU hit .244 in the 2022 season. Reilly and NU’s hitters have bummed their numbers dramatically. Four Husker hitters earned a Big Ten Weekly award this season. Three hitters were named on the All-Big Ten teams.
In addition to her 1095 assists, she recorded 2.60 digs per set, 0.51 blocks per set and 18 total service aces. Reilly recorded 12 double-doubles this season.
NU’s freshman setter has had an incredible impact on Nebraska’s offense and team in general.
Big Ten Freshman of the Year
The 2023 National Gatorade Player of the Year, outside hitter Harper Murray, continued to turn heads as a freshman at Nebraska. She is the Big Ten Freshman of the Year and was a first team selection and an All-Freshmen team pick.
Murray averages 3.29 kills per set and 3.86 points per set. The Ann Arbor, Michigan native ranks tenth in the conference in both categories.
The 6-foot-2 freshman is hitting .250 and adds 2.01 digs per set. She leads the team with 31 service aces and 82 service errors. Murray also averages 0.48 blocks per set with 49 total blocks.
She has had seven double-doubles this season. Murray’s passing has improved throughout the season. She has become pretty reliable in the back row next to Rodriguez.
The freshman hitter was huge in Nebraska’s five-set win over Wisconsin. After struggling for the majority of the match, Murray had seven kills in the fifth set to secure the win.
Murray was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Week three times in 2022.
All-Big Ten teams
Six Huskers were selected on All-Big Ten teams. Merritt Beason, Harper Murray, Rodriguez and Reilly are First Team selections. Bekka Allick and Andi Jackson made the second team. Reilly, Murray and Jackson all made the All-Big Ten Freshman team.
Beason is one of the two Huskers unanimously selected for the All-Big Ten first team. She leads the Huskers with 3.81 kills per set and 4.49 points per set. The 6-foot-3 opposite ranks seventh in the Big Ten in kills per set and sixth in points per set. The junior captain was named the Big Ten Player of the Week four times this season.
She is hitting .284 and adds 27 aces, the second most on the team, 2.08 digs per set and 0.78 blocks per set. Beason had a season-high 27 kills in Nebraska’s five-set win over Penn State on the road. At Florida, she was on the 2022 All-SEC Team and the 2021 SEC All-Freshman Team.
Beason was considered for the Big Ten Player of the Year. She was also named the AVCA National Player of the Year after the Huskers took down Wisconsin.
Sophomore middle blocker Bekka Allick earned her second All-Big Ten Second Team selection. She was also on the All-Big Ten Freshman Team in 2022. The Lincoln, Neb. native averages 1.35 blocks per set, the fourth highest in the Big Ten. Allick averages 1.82 kills per set and is hitting .324 this season.
Middle blocker Andi Jackson is on the All-Conference Freshman team. She is ranked second in the Big Ten with a .408 hitting percentage. Jackson is No. 15 in Division I volleyball with her hitting percentage too. The 6-foot-3 freshman averages 2.10 kills per set and 1.06 blocks per set. She has one of the most lethal slides in the Big Ten.
Nebraska’s third middle blocker, Maggie Mendelson, is Nebraska’s Sportsmanship honoree. The 6-foot-5 middle blocker has played in 23 sets so far this season. She averaged 0.913 kills per set and 0.48 blocks per set.
