Three Takes: Husker Volleyball falls in a hard-fought national championship

No. 10 Nebraska Volleyball fell to No. 4 Wisconsin to lose in the national championship match. The Badgers won their first national title in program history after being to the championship match four times.

The Huskers came out hot and commanded the first set winning 25-22. Wisconsin won a marathon of a second match 31-29 and the third match 25-23. Nebraska kept their hopes of the program's 6th national title alive by winning set four 25-23 but couldn't come back for a victory in set five, losing 15-12.

Here are my final three takes on Nebraska volleyball's final game and season:

Nebraska will be back to the national championship in the next few years.

The three freshmen that start on this team played well on the big stage and were a crucial part of helping the Huskers all the way to the championship.

While neither of the three freshmen had incredible games, they all had incredible plays and battled hard.

Outside hitter Ally Batenhorst had 11 kills with six errors and hit .122. In the fifth set, Batenhorst had two huge kills and no errors. After Wisconsin started the match 7-0, Batenhorst scored NU's first point of the match.

Batenhorst won the fourth set with a "big time" kill as setter Nicklin Hames called it.

"For Ally, as a freshman to take that swing," Hames said. "I think that just shows you how much growth that (the freshman have) had."

Opposite hitter Lindsay Krause added 12 kills, hit .081 and added five blocks.

Libero Lexi Rodriguez didn't have a record-setting number of digs but she had some great ups. The AVCA National Freshman of the Year had 13 digs and four assists while Wisconsin tried to avoid her.

The Huskers have three other extremely talented freshmen on the sidelines, including Whitney Lauenstein, who will make a huge impact on this team and no doubt find a way to lead them back to the Final Four in the years to come.

The Badgers have beaten Nebraska in the last eight matchups between the two Big Ten teams. Husker fans likely cringe at that stat.

But the incredible athletes that are Dana Rettke, Sydney Hilley, Lauren Barnes, Grace Loberg, Giorgia Civita and other upperclassmen, deserve to win a national championship.

Yes, it might be difficult for some of you because Wisconsin defeated Nebraska but the Badgers are an elite volleyball team with some of the best players in the country.

If you can't appreciate that, you could probably be grateful that Rettke and Hilley played their last game in the Badger uniform.

Rettke had 11 kills and had a season-high 13 blocks. She had four kills and no errors in set five and two blocks in the final set to carry her team to victory. Hilley had 51 assists, 13 digs, two kills and five blocks.

The competition between Nebraska and Wisconsin on and off the court helped this All-Big Ten match break an NCAA attendance record with an audience of 18,755. While the Badgers came out on top, both teams should be proud of their efforts, a great season and furthering the sport of volleyball.

Both teams left everything they had on the volleyball court.

Two teams playing at an extremely high level and going to five sets is exactly what a national championship match should look like.

The second set is an example of the intensity and talent in this match. The great play-making, intensity, determination and intelligent volleyball made it unfortunate that one team had to lose.

"This team did a good job of fighting and staying in it," middle blocker Lauren Stivrins said. "There were a lot of times where we could have so easily given up but we didn't."

Stivrins, who played her last game for the Huskers on Saturday, had 10 kills, hit .222 and had five blocks.

Hames cried in the press conference because she realized she would "probably never play with Lauren again". This shows how much Stivrins means to this team.

As Stivrins said, Nebraska didn't give up and even found a way to come back from a 7-0 deficit in the fifth set. That effort and determination to fight back should be the thing this 2021 team is remembered for.