Nebraska claim Big Ten title after six years

The Big Ten women’s volleyball conference play won’t be completed until next weekend, but the division already has its 2023 champions as Nebraska clinched their fourth title on Sunday.

The only undefeated team in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) system, the Cornhuskers got a pair of wins over the weekend and, with 18 triumphs in Big Ten matches, are guaranteed to remain at the top of the standings until the end of the season.

• Watch the Big Ten Volleyball matches live on VBTV.

The victory is the first for the program since 2017, when they split the title with Penn State, and the fourth overall, following successful campaigns in 2011, 2016 and 2017. It also stopped a four-year division-winning streak for Wisconsin.

“Winning the Big Ten Conference is harder than winning a National Championship,” head coach John Cook commented. “We get to play great teams over ten weeks and every place we played has been sold out. It feels really good, it’s been a while. It’s an unbelievable amount of pressure when you get to this point of the year and we upped our game."

The Cornhuskers won two matches over the weekend, beating Michigan 3-0 (25-15, 25-12, 25-20) at home on Friday and topping Iowa also in three sets (25-21, 25-21, 15-15) on the road on Sunday.

Sophomore middle blocker Bekka Allick (seven kills, five blocks) and freshman middle blocker Andi Jackson (nine kills, three blocks) led the Cornhuskers against Michigan with 12 points apiece.

Against Iowa, junior opposite Merritt Beason, with 13 points (12 kills, one ace) and Allick, with 12 (nine kills, three blocks), were the team’s main scorers.

With 18 victories, Nebraska are now out of reach for second-placed and last year’s champions Wisconsin, who have 15 wins and three losses with just two more conference matches to be played.

The Badgers saw their hopes of successfully defending their title vanish on Friday, when they fell to Purdue in five sets (22-25, 25-19, 25-20, 12-25, 16-14) on the road. On Sunday, Wisconsin bounced back with a three-set (25-19, 26-24, 25-14) win over Indiana on the road.

The last week of Big Ten conference play will start on Wednesday with one match and will continue with seven encounters on Friday and another six on Saturday. On Sunday, after the conclusion of all conference schedules, the 64 teams that will compete in the National Championship will be announced.

VBTV subscribers around the world will be able to watch two matches live – Michigan State vs. Indiana, on Friday, at 13:00 local time (18:00 GMT), and Wisconsin vs. Iowa, on Saturday, at 19:00 local time (01:00 GMT, Sunday).

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