If you follow up with women’s collegiate volleyball, you have definitely seen the results of the NCAA Volleyball finals right before the holiday break. It was a surprise to many fans that the Texas Longhorns of University of Texas triumphed over the Nebraska Huskers of the University of Nebraska, who had been almost undefeated for their whole season. Now that the Huskers’ loss allowed Texas to win back-to-back championship titles, many people have started to ask the question, “What went wrong for Nebraska?”
Before we dive into the big championship, we should look at both Texas and Nebraska’s seasons leading up to it. Nebraska had one of the most notable seasons in their history since 2005, ending with a record of 28-1 for their regular season. They had a streak of 27 wins in a row before losing to No. 2 University of Wisconsin. With this, they won a regional title and had high hopes for the big NCAA tournament ahead of them. During the tournament, they beat out Long Island University, the University of Missouri, Georgia Tech, the University of Arkansas, and Pittsburgh University, sending them to the final match against Texas.
Texas’s season went a little different than Nebraska’s this year. Coming off their NCAA Championship win in 2022, everyone was expecting great things from the team. Texas finished their regular season with a record of 28-4, putting them at No. 5 in the conference and causing them to fly under the radar with all the attention on No. 1 Nebraska. After beating out Texas A&M University, Southern Methodist University, the University of Tennessee, Stanford University, and the University of Wisconsin, Texas came back into the spotlight when they made it into the finals with Nebraska. With their season compared to Nebraska’s, many fans viewed Texas as “the underdogs” and expected Nebraska to take the NCAA Championship title. However, that was not the case, and the Longhorns beat out the Huskers in a 3-set sweep, 3–0.
The first set of the match was close between the two teams, with Texas having 25 points and Nebraska having 22. Many intense rallies occurred during this match; Texas wanted to keep their title, and Nebraska wanted to keep their almost perfect record. However, the second set took a turn for the worse. Nebraska started off with a good fight but got hung up at around point 10 on defense against Texas’s strong hitters and blockers like Madison Skinner, Asia O’Neal, and Jenna Wenaas. This set Nebraska back greatly and put Texas in the lead by a lot. Unfortunately, even though Nebraska did eventually get the ball back, it was already too late in the set, and Texas took the win for the second set as well, with a final score of 25–14. The third and final set of the match could be described as underwhelming.
Most were expecting Nebraska to fight as hard as possible to give them a chance at winning the set and then going to five sets to hopefully win the whole match, but the complete opposite happened. It felt almost as if Nebraska had given up during this last set, barely getting to double digits point-wise. Their main downfall this time around was their passing, specifically receiving Texas’s serves. Many points in a row were lost due to being aced (being unable to pass the opposing team’s serve) constantly by Asia O’Neal and other players. As the set came to a close, it was clear that Nebraska was getting tired and losing the energy they once had for their whole season and first set of the match. When match point finally came, Nebraska lost the point on an ace from Asia O’Neal’s serve, giving Texas their second NCAA title in a row.
Though this result shocked a lot of the volleyball community, I think Texas winning once again was a good thing that happened. Nebraska had their time in the spotlight for the whole volleyball season up to the final game, and unfortunately, like everything, all good things must come to an end. Nebraska played well and with passion throughout this year’s volleyball season, but unfortunately fell short during the finals. However, this takes nothing away from them as a team and is just more motivation for them to make a better comeback for the 2024 season.
