Nebraska @ Stanford on now ESPN. Huskers up 1-0 in sets, 17-13 in set 2. Beason is having a great night so far.
Gators played a very sloppy game and still found a way to win, in spite of the home cooking on the challenges. . I love the cohesiveness of this year's team. Fitzpatrick is coming on huge. Victoria is hot and cold and Martin is a monster. Stuckey is the glue with so many assists and timely plays. Gotta play better to beat Wisconsin Sunday.
15 service errors and 25 attack errors should lose most matches. Their grittiness and cohesiveness prevailed tonight, but they have to play a lot cleaner to be Wisconsin or any top ranked team.
UNL 3-1 as Stanford took the third set: No. 4 Huskers Topple No. 5 Stanford on the Road - University of Nebraska - Official Athletics Website Merritt Beason looked good. The UNL roster lists her at 6'4" while UF had her at 6'3". She doesn't look any taller to me. I also like her hair in a bun better and in regular shorts too, but it's the new and improved Beason now that she is at UNL. UNL has a few baby-faced assassins. The 3 freshmen along with the sophomore MB looked good. The UNL roster: Volleyball 2023 - University of Nebraska - Official Athletics Website (huskers.com) Allick 6'4" SO MB Reilly 6'1" FR S Jackson 6'3" FR MB/OH Murray 6'2" FR OH Rodriguez 5'5" DS Libero Those players along with Beason 6'3" make up the core of an outstanding UNL team. What UNL does not have is anyone close to Kennedy Martin. However, that can be said of all the volleyball teams not named Florida. Hope it is okay to showcase UNL after their big road win at Stanford. I think we will be playing them somewhere down the line in the NCAA tourney. Back to UF, Nnedi Okammor looked good, led the team in blocks. The depth is better at MB than what I originally thought. It's an excellent coaching move by CMW to get Nnedi live fire against competitive opponents.
Beason plays the same position as Kennedy Martin. I think whoever here said it may be right that Beason saw the writing on the wall for that position with UF. She kept her position and became an immediate team leader with the young and talented UNL team.
I watched the game last night and am just reading through the posts, and I'm happy to see my thoughts were the same as most of the posts here. The service errors and hitting errors were maddening. I was watching the game with my 13y old daughter who is a fanatic. I didn't call the cheerleaders ugly but wondered out loud if that's their C-team of cheerleaders. Every challenge going against the Gators and for FSU was insane. What are the odds of that happening? And a ref telling the FSU coach he should challenge? I have never seen that before, and I would hope that's not something that's allowed. And is it just me, but did it seem that the blind ref that was reviewing the replays had his glasses on sometimes, but not others? After we won the match the first time, I said, nope, their coach will challenge it to get it reversed. Since it's a judgment call, anything will be ruled in FSU's favor. My daughter wasn't alive to see the game but I gave her the history of the swindle at the swamp, which didn't involve replay, but biased referees. Fortunately, we overcame it in this match without having our A-game, even though FSU did have theirs and the refs in their pocket. And what a crappy gym that is. Who would want to coach or play there?
After loosing the 7th challenge and winning the next two points convincingly for the match was fantastic. Kudos to the ladies for winning and getting out of that dump with biased refs.