Stanford upsets Nebraska volleyball in a thrilling four set battle

The Huskers take the third set in a must-win situation 25-19 after going on a HUGE run towards the end of the set to completely change the momentum. John Cook made the decision to put In Kennedi Orr when they were up by just two, 20-18. The next three Husker points rallied the Nebraska crowd when Kevin Hambly took a timeout for Stanford. Out of the timeout, Whitney Lauenstein served TWO aces to take the set and keep the Huskers alive. 

Lauenstein has been the bellcow for this Nebraska game all match long, and those two points displayed just that. This match is not over yet, folks. 

It is uncertain if Nicklin Hames is on the bench with injury, but Orr is staying in the match and will provide another big block in the front. The whole set was filled with a lot of errors and a lot of service errors, but man, get ready for a crazy fourth set. 

TALK ABOUT A BLOCK PARTY.

GO BIG RED. pic.twitter.com/r1EWdWk9OB

— Husker Volleyball (@Huskervball) September 14, 2022

Lindsay Krause has come alive in the third set for the Huskers, and helped Nebraska tie up the set. The Huskers needed some more options offensively to get something going and Krause has done a good job at that. Bekka Allick then gave Nebraska their first lead since the first set, and the crowd at Devaney Center is on their feet. They now have a two-point lead at 15-13 after coming from behind. They are handling the ball better out-of-system despite some difficult situations. 

Nebraska faces a win-or-go-home set. 

The Cardinal have the lead in set two as the errors are piling up for Nebraska. The Huskers are down to a negative hitting percentage in the second set as the Cardinal are up to five blocks this set. Kendall Kipp and Sami Francis are racking up the blocks. 

WOW! After the Huskers controlled virtually the entire first set, Stanford somehow, someway, came back and won the thing. They went from being significantly outhit, to outhitting Nebraska .284 to .214. And despite giving up SEVEN points via service errors, they pulled it out in the end. What a comeback. Elia Rubin notched five kills on .433 hitting, and Sami Francis was really strong out of the middle with five kills of her own on an absurd .833 hitting. 

Whitney Lauenstein put down five kills for the Huskers and they were able to contain both Kendall Kipp and Caitie Baird offensively, but the Cardinal had other players step up and got it done at crunch time. 

The Huskers took the biggest lead of the match, up 18-12 when the Cardinal called a timeout. Right out of the timeout, Stanford rattled off three un-answered points to cut the deficit to three before John Cook called a timeout of his own to attempt to stop the run. The Huskers got the next one before the Cardinal continued, getting within one on a 6-1 run. 

Whitney Lauenstein picked up a couple for the Huskers before the Cardinal got back with one again at 21-20 and then 22-21. Stanford picked up its sixth service error of the set to allow the Huskers to get within two, but then back-to-back Cardinal points tied up the set for the first time since it was 6-6. Stanford took the FIRST lead of the set at 24-23 off of none other than a service ace, which had been its achilles heel all set long (seven total). The Cardinal had three set points before Kaitlyn Hord sent one wide and Stanford took set one. 

Who: No. 2 Nebraska vs. No. 9 Stanford
Where: Lincoln, Nebraska
How to watch: Big Ten Network

The Nebraska Huskers will take on fellow-perennial powerhouse Stanford on Tuesday night at home. The Huskers will be facing their first top-10 program of the season after finishing as the runner-ups in 2021. They have been cruising with a 7-0 record so far on the season, but the biggest test awaits tonight. Outside hitter Whitney Lauenstein is averaging a team-high 3.74 kills per set with a team-leading .367 hitting percentage to go with 1.09 blocks per set. Lauenstein had a career-high 25 kills on .385 hitting in the win at Creighton last week.

Stanford on the other-hand, has faced one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the nation so far this season. The Cardinal are battling back to the top of college volleyball after falling out of the mix following their 2019 national title. They are coming off a big weekend, where they fell to Penn State in five sets before responding with a top-three win over Minnesota to crack the top-10 in the AVCA rankings. The Cardinal are finishing off their tough nonconference schedule with Nebraska, tonight, and then with No. 3 Louisville on Sunday. Kendall Kipp leads the offense with four kills per set, and she is followed by Caitie Baird who averages 3.05 kills per set. The Cardinal will have the tough task of taking on a highly-ranked Nebraska time in their home stadium in front of a hostile crowd.

However, Stanford leads the all-time series, 11-6, and has won the last four meetings between the teams. The Huskers are the favored team, but have not beat the Cardinal in the past FOUR meetings.  Stanford defeated the Huskers, 3-1 (25-19, 12-25, 25-21, 25-23), in Palo Alto last season on Sept. 14. Lindsay Krause and Ally Batenhorst each had 10 kills for the Huskers in that match. Both players are now sophomores this season. 

Stanford cracked into the latest NCAA.com Power 10 rankings after a big week 3 in college volleyball. The Cardinal fell to Penn State in a five-set battle, but then followed it up with a big win over then-No. 3 Minnesota. Click or tap here for a full explanation of the latest Power 10.