The Rally: No. 9 Nebraska Volleyball best serving team in Big Ten

No. 9 Husker volleyball (12-3, 6-0) is the only undefeated team in the Big Ten during conference games. Nebraska played then-No. 13 Penn State (12-4, 5-1) and won 3-1 at Rec Hall in its first ranked matchup in the Big Ten.

NU hosts Indiana (8-10, 2-4) on Wednesday at 8:00 p.m. on ESPNU. A talented Illinois squad (11-6, 1-4) will face Nebraska on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. at the Devaney Center on Nebraska Public Media and BTN Plus.

This week's The Rally breaks down the opponents, players to watch, serving statistics, the new RPI rankings and much more.

Indiana:

The Hoosiers, like every Big Ten team, have a difficult schedule and played three ranked opponents and Maryland, who received votes. They are 8-10 overall and 2-4 in the Big Ten. Indiana swept Michigan State, beat Rutgers in four sets and won a set against then-No. 14 Penn State.

Indiana is ranked No. 10 in the Big Ten. The Hoosiers are hitting .193 as a team, which is the lowest in the conference. They rank second-to-last in opponent blocking numbers with 2.39 per set.

Illinois:

The Fighting Illini (11-6) are 3-3 in the Big Ten. However, that record does not reflect their talent level. Illinois played each No. 3 Wisconsin and No. 6 Purdue twice in a four-game span. They beat Purdue in five sets the first time, then lost in five sets in the second match. In each game vs. the Badgers, Illinois lost 3-1.

In their victory over the Boilermakers, the Fighting Illini held them to a sub-.31 hitting percentage in four of the five sets including two sets under .10. Outside hitter Megan Cooney led the team with 21 kills.

Illinois also beat Iowa and Northwestern in five sets. Both teams hit under .185 and each had two sets where they hit zero or just above it. The Fighting Illini play Iowa for the second time on Wednesday before heading to Lincoln.

Breana Edwards, Indiana:

The 6-foot-3 outside hitter leads the Hoosiers with 214 kills and 3.34 kills per set. Edwards is hitting .199 with 41 digs and 28 blocks.

The second-team All-Big Ten selection earned her 1,000 career kill vs. Georgia on Sept. 10. She currently ranks No. 18 in Indiana volleyball history in career kills (1,086) and is the 19th player to have more than 1,000 career kills.

Edwards had 18 kills, hit .349 and added two blocks in Indiana’s four-set loss to Penn State. She had 19 kills with a .261 hitting percentage and four blocks in her team’s win at Rutgers.

Kaley Rammelsburg, Indiana:

Middle blocker Kaley Rammelsburg ranks sixth in the Big Ten with a .385 hitting percentage. She had 129 kills on the season along with 16 digs and 54 blocks.

In Indiana’s three-set loss to Maryland, the 6-foot-1 junior hit .385 with five kills and had seven kills and a .545 clip against Michigan State.

Rammelsburg transferred from High Point before the 2021 season, where she was named a 2020 Big South First Team All-Conference and the Big South Freshman of the Year in 2019.

Diana Brown, Illinois:

Setter Diana Brown has 671 assists this season and averaged 9.87 assists per set, ranked No. 9 in the Big Ten. The 6-foot-0 junior has the second most digs on the team (167) with 31 kills and 38 blocks.

She posted a season-high 52 assists against Northwestern. Brown has eight double-doubles this season. At Purdue, she had 50 assists, 15 digs, four blocks and one ace. She had a similar performance in her second game against the Boilermakers with 50 assists, 13 digs and three blocks.

Nebraska will have to account for Brown in the front row with her ability to block and get .46 kills per set.

Taylor Kuper, Illinois:

The Fighting Illini’s libero Taylor Kuper averages the third-highest digs per set (4.51) in the Big Ten behind Maryland’s Milan Gomillion (4.76) and Ohio State’s Kylie Murr (4.61). The 5-8 senior had 301 digs, 67 assists and 28 service aces with 42 errors this season.

The 2020 first-team All-Big Ten selection has six games of over 20 digs and a season-high 29 digs against Creighton. Kuper had 25 and 26 digs in Illinois’ two games against Purdue with a total of 12 assists.

Megan Cooney, Illinois:

Outside hitter Megan Cooney has the second-most kills on the team with 204 and the best hitting percentage of .239. The All-Big Ten second-team selection has 161 digs (the third-highest on the team), 48 blocks and 23 aces with 41 services errors.

The 6-4 graduate student ranks No. 10 in the Big Ten with 3.99 points per set.

Like many of her teammates, Cooney had her best games of the season against Purdue. In the first matchup, she added 21 kills, hit .260 and had nine digs. Cooney had 18 kills, 11 digs and two blocks in their second matchup.

2.10: Nebraska leads the Big Ten with 2.10 service aces per set in conference play with 42 total aces. Michigan State has the next closest with 1.65 aces per set.

The Huskers average 1.53 aces per set, No. 5 in the Big Ten, and have 82 total aces on the season.

In the weekend matches against Penn State and Rutgers, NU had 19 aces and only allowed two. Keonilei Akana had five aces and Kenzie Knuckles had four in those two matches. Six Huskers served an ace versus the Scarlet Knights.

“We've worked really hard on putting service pressure on other teams and we say it's the first line of offense so we serve aggressively and get the other teams out of system,” Knuckles said.

Knuckles said that having so many great servers on their team gives them practice with passing tough serves.

1.97: While Nebraska leads the Big Ten in conference only serving, Illinois leads the conference with 1.90 aces per set for the overall season. They have 120 aces in 63 sets this season.

As for defending against serves, Illinois ranked fifth among the 14 Big Ten schools with .97.

The Fighting Illini has two players in the top 10 of service aces per set in the Big Ten. Outside hitter Raina Terry serves .50 aces per set, ranked No. 3 in the conference, and Kuper is ranked No. 6 with .38 aces per set.

Saturday will be a battle between how can serve better but most importantly, who can pass serves better.

Nebraska is ranked No. 14 in the second RPI ranking of the season. They jumped from No. 21 after victories over Penn State and Rutgers.

As a review, RPI is calculated based on wins and losses but also the strength of its schedule. The Huskers have or will play 20 teams in the Top 100 and nine teams in the Top 32. They also played No. 105 Omaha, No. 106 Colgate and No. 146 Iowa.

Notable teams in the Top 100 or so which are on Nebraska's schedule:

Huskers No. 2 Big Ten in Opponent hitting percentage:

The Huskers are ranked No. 2 in opponent hitting percentage (.150) in the conference behind Maryland who’s opponents hit an average of .140 this season.

Nebraska had 76 digs against Penn State, with five players adding double-digit digs: Rodriguez (19), Knuckles (13), Hames (12), Kubik (12) and Akana (12).

NU is ranked No. 1 in digs per set in the conference play with 17.10. Minnesota is second with 16.08.

Kayla Caffey out against Indiana, potentially Illinois:

On Sunday, middle blocker Kayla Caffey did not play against Rutgers after recording nine kills and seven block assists versus Penn State two days prior.

Caffey has 110 kills, 54 blocks and is hitting .382, ranking her No. 8 in the Big Ten in hitting percentage.

Cook said she felt sick last week and tested negative for COVID-19. She was not at practice on Tuesday so she likely won’t play against Indiana on Wednesday.

Callie Schwarzenbach started instead of Caffey against Rutgers and had five kills and three block assists. Schwarzenbach has a lot of experience and Cook said its convenient to have so much depth at middle blocker and other positions on the team.

Players of the week:

After an impressive win against Penn State, three Huskers received weekly Big Ten awards.

Outside hitter Madi Kubik was named the Co-Big Ten Player of the Week alongside Ohio State’s Emily Londot. Kubik had 19 kills, seven errors and hit .235 against the Nittany Lions. She added 12 digs and an ace service. Kubik recorded 11 kills, a .280 clip, 1.5 blocks and nine digs versus Rutgers.

After earning her eighth double-double of the season, Setter Nicklin Hames was named the Big Ten Setter of the Week.

Against Penn State, Hames had a season-high 49 assists and 12 digs. She recorded three block assists and an ace. The senior setter had 30 assists at Rutgers with eight digs, two kills and one ace.

Lastly, Lexi Rodriquez was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Week for the second time in her career. Rodriguez is one of two freshmen honored with this award. Outside hitter Lindsay Krause earned it for the week of Sept. 27.

Rodriguez had 19 digs and four assists versus the Nittany Lions. She had 177 digs, four assists and two aces against Rutgers.