Well, it's not the Big 12 anymore. But it'll do for now. Nebraska volleyball will take its No. 1 overall seed up against the No. 8 seed in its quarter, the Missouri Tigers, in a second-round NCAA Women's Volleyball Tournament matchup tonight at 7 p.m. (ESPN+).

That matchup between the Huskers (29-1) and Tigers (18-12) is the product of sweeps by each program over its first-round opponents, LIU and Delaware, respectively.

After each team's match, a pair of players and the head coaches spoke briefly to recap their wins and preview the Saturday night bout. Here's what they had to say:

On how the younger players handled the NCAA Tournament environment:

“There’s always going to be nerves in the first game. We’ve had other matches like this. First round, it’s just different. Everything’s different, the introductions are different, it’s a home match but it’s not what we’re normally used to. It’s just that we’re playing a team that – some of our players might not even know where Long Island is. It’s not in the Big Ten, so I don’t even know they know. That’d be a great question for me to ask them. Where’s Long Island? What state? It’s just a little unfamiliar. Sometimes you have to win ugly, you’re not going to play perfectly for this tournament. You have to find a way to win three games by two points.”

On if serving was the weapon he wanted against LIU:

“For the most part. We served seven aces, six errors, that’s pretty good. We had them out of system a lot, we just didn’t make them pay enough with our block and defense. We let them get out too many times.”

On playing without a voice and what she saw from teammates:

“The coaches talked about it a lot and we talked about it as a team, too, just that we had to bring energy and I think that tonight, that looked a little bit different from me. I had to show my energy through my actions and celebrations and less of the voice but I think that they did a really good job of stepping up in that vocal aspect when I needed them to and I have to give a lot of credit to Lexi (Rodriguez) specifically because she’s not normally very vocal but she was very vocal, especially in that third set. I think that’s why I love being a captain with Lexi because if one of us is struggling a little bit, and tonight, that was my voice, she’s able to pick me up. So I have to give a ton of credit to her, but I think the team as a whole, people who aren’t necessarily always vocal leaders picked it up there in that third set and that’s why we were able to pull it out.”

On the adversity of being down in Set 3:

“Obviously you’d rather not be in that position, but as we have gone throughout this entire season, we’ve been tested a lot. We’ve learned from however the match went that we just played. I think we’ll definitely learn from it and I think it was probably a good little wake-up call, like ‘alright, teams are going to come at us and teams are going to bring their best shot and right now it's one and done.’ Obviously, I would prefer to not be in that situation, but I think it probably was a bit of a wake-up call, like a little pat on the back. I hope that we take it that way and we learn from it like we have all season and I hope that we come back out just like Nebraska volleyball does tomorrow.”

On preparing for Missouri’s hitters:

“We’ve played a ton of teams this entire season with a ton of power, so I think tomorrow, our focus will be like coach said, playing Nebraska volleyball. We play against those arms every day in our gym, we play against them all the way throughout the Big Ten, so it’ll just be about the discipline, like coach said, be sure that we’re doing what we’re supposed to do and we’re playing Nebraska volleyball. I would say that would definitely be our focus tomorrow. And they’re going to bring their best shot, just like Long Island did and we know that, so we have to be ready for that.”

On Lexi Rodriguez:

“I think Lexi is very good at picking up on what the team needs and she’s not always the most outwardly excited player, she keeps a calm head most of the time. But in the third set, she was really good with energy and I thought it was really cool that she was able to step up in that role for Merritt (Beason).

On her blocking and the back-to-back blocks in the third set:

“I think that, just going in, we knew that their style of volleyball is just a little bit different. Finding our timing against a different style of volleyball is always a little bit difficult at first, but I think we’ll do better next game of finding the right timing. Being able to trust my pin blockers and get those blocks was huge for us, just energy-wise and momentum-wise.”

Opening Statement:

“I’ll just start by saying what a fight, Delaware. They had an incredible season and they didn’t give up until the end. On the flip side, maybe this game didn’t start the way they wanted, maybe it didn’t feel exactly ‘great,’ but they continued to stay with it and battle every single play. I’m so impressed with the grit they continue showing.”

On preparing for Nebraska if they advance:

“I take it game by game. I think we always put some things in there without people not even knowing. I think that's just our job as a coach to continue to prepare. But right now, as we entered this game, it was all about Delaware, but we’re ready to go. We’ll get back to it and we’re ready to play tomorrow.”

On leading kills in first postseason appearance and mindset for tomorrow

“It was awesome, but I couldn’t do it without the help of defense, my offense and everyone else in front of me. Going into tomorrow I just always say, ‘We need to be really confident.’ We don't want to overlook anybody, but we don't wanna be overlooked either.”

Here's what LIU's coach and players said in comments after their loss to Nebraska about what it was like to play the Huskers in an environment like the Devaney Center:

HEAD COACH AMABLE MARTINEZ:

Opening Statement:

“It was an amazing experience. I think the girls gave it all they could. I know it was a David versus Goliath type of situation, but I thought they fought hard. We pushed them a bit in the last set. Came up short, but I'm super proud of them for their effort.”

LIBERO ALASHA COLON:

On playing in the tournament and playing in front of almost 9,000 fans:

“For me, it was huge. I've been trying this for three years. Third time's a charm. And it was extremely amazing to play in front of 9,000 people. It was an unbelievable experience.”

On what you would say 10 years down the road about playing at Nebraska:

“It was awesome. It was incredible. I mean, this is what you play for, a big tournament. Just high level volleyball. Not very many kids get to say that they've played this level of volleyball, so that's very exciting.”

SETTER ALLIE MERZ:

On playing in the tournament and playing in front of almost 9,000 fans:

“I agree. I think that the last time I played the tournament, it was in the Bob and so it was like a completely new environment. I think it was a really cool experience for us to come play in the Bob. You see this on social media how crazy the crowd is and it's just a really cool thing to experience live.”