2018 NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship

Nebraska, Stanford Will Meet In The NCAA Championship

Nebraska, Stanford Will Meet In The NCAA Championship

Nebraska and Stanford won their respective semifinal matches to advance to the 2018 NCAA women's volleyball national championship match.

Dec 14, 2018 by Megan Kaplon
Nebraska, Stanford Will Meet In The NCAA Championship

MINNEAPOLIS — Nebraska didn’t win the Big Ten conference title this season. The Huskers didn’t earn a top-four seed and get to host regionals. And they didn’t win the first two sets of their national semifinal match versus Illinois.

But none of that matters now. 

Hurtling back from down 0-2, No. 6-ranked and No. 7-seeded Nebraska upset No. 3-ranked and seeded Illinois in five (22-25, 16-25, 25-23, 25-20, 15-11) to punch its ticket to Saturday’s national championship match, proving once again, you should never count out Nebraska volleyball. 

Just a year ago, the Huskers came back from down 1-2 and facing match point in the fourth set against Penn State in the national semifinals, then went on to win the national championship.

This time, junior outside hitter Jacqueline Quade came out hot and led Illinois to a solid win in set one and then a 6-0 start to set two, which turned into a 25-16 smashing for the Fighting Illini. 

But in the locker room in the break between sets two and three, Nebraska was anything but defeated.

“We just said, ‘We’re not playing our Nebraska volleyball style. We’re letting them off on easy points, we’re letting these points go. So we just need to regroup. We’ve got to compete here because either going to down, we’re going to lose and go home, or we’re going to stay and keep fighting,’” said freshman setter Nicklin Hames. “We were in the locker room like, ‘Hey, we're going to play five games tonight and we’re super excited about it.’”


Senior libero Kenzie Maloney described it as if an entirely new team took the floor in the third set.

“It was pretty obvious we were struggling early,” she said. “We kind of just said we need a new team to come out in the third set. We all just dug down deep and genuinely believed we could do that, turn the match around.”

On the final stats sheet, Illinois had 9.5 blocks to Nebraska’s four and the Huskers had 103 total points to Illinois’ 104, but Nebraska head coach John Cook emphasized the importance of being good when it matters.

“You know, when you get to this point, you got to win close games in big points at the end of games,” Cook explained. “That's what this team has been doing a great job of the last five weeks, six weeks.”


Two-time NCAA tournament MOP Mikaela Foecke and first-year Husker Lexi Sun, a sophomore transfer from Texas, each had 19 kills. Quade finished the match with 28 on 76 total swings.

In the second semifinal of the night, No. 1-seeded and ranked Stanford stifled No. 4 seed BYU, sweeping the Cougars 25-15, 25-15, 25-18, and in the process earning some redemption for the sole blemish on their 2018 record, a five-set loss to BYU in Provo on Aug. 31.

Maybe things would have been different if BYU’s starting lineup still included outside hitter McKenna Miller, who tore her ACL on Nov. 9. Or for that matter if a knee injury in early August hadn’t ended the season of 6-7 sophomore Sara Hamson before it even started.

But perhaps without facing such adversity, and growing stronger as a result, the Cougars would never have made it as far as they did, posting a 27-0 start to the season (the best start in program history), earning a top-four seed in the tournament and defeating perennial powers Florida and Texas on their way to the national semifinals.

We’ll never know. What was clear was that Stanford was the better team on Thursday night. 

Heading into the match, BYU had the nation’s best hitting percentage (.315). Against Stanford, the team hit -.026, thanks in large part to 17 blocks and 43 digs from the team in red. 

“What we did defensively against them tonight, we didn't expect that,” Stanford head coach Kevin Hambly admitted. “We thought we could play some pretty good defense, but didn't expect to hold them to negative.”

In particular, Stanford slowed down BYU’s star senior outside hitter Roni Jones-Perry. In her final collegiate match, Jones-Perry had just eight kills, hitting -.114, compared to her season average of 4.88 kills per set at a .343 clip. 

Senior middle Tami Alade led the blocking effort for Stanford, collecting 14 blocks. 

In the post-match press conference, Hambly credited Alade for stepping up when the team needed someone to take over the middle blocker position following the graduation of First Team All-American middle Inky Ajanaku. 

“Last year [Tami would] get a swing and score. She'd get a block, she looked surprised. ‘I can't believe I did that,’” Hambly said. “She would actually say that coming off the court.” 

Although she’s been Stanford’s starting middle for two years now, Alade’s still focused on getting better. On the way to the semifinal match, as the team walked to the arena through Minneapolis’ network of skywalks, Hambly said Alade kept reaching up with her arms, working on the motion of pressing them up and over the net.

“She's trying to master the craft of blocking, attacking as much as she can,” Hambly said. “She absolutely has had a growth mindset.”

When asked about her blocking prowess, Alade threw the credit back to Hambly. 

“It’s honestly all Kevin,” she said. “He’s an incredible blocking coach. When he played, he was the No. 1 blocker in the country and so he has insights on how to adjust things when they’re not working out for me. He knows what to say to make me a better blocker.”


Junior Stanford libero Morgan Hentz also starred, scooping 20 digs and playing a big role in frustrating BYU’s hitters. And, of course, the match-leading 12 kills from junior outside hitter and reigning AVCA Player of the Year Kathryn Plummer deserve mention.

For BYU’s part, head coach Heather Olmstead, who was named the 2018 National Coach of the Year earlier on Thursday, chalked the loss up to failures on serve receive.

“There were no surprises tonight,” she said. “Stanford is a great team. They serve tough. They have a big block. We weren't serving tough enough for us to get any touches, get some blocks. As soon as our passing broke down in set one, it was super hard for us to generate any offense.”

Stanford and Nebraska will meet in the national championship on Saturday. Although the two teams have been to a combined 23 title bouts, this marks the first time they will face each other in the final. No matter what happens in the championship match, 2018 marks the fourth year in a row the title will be won by either Stanford or Nebraska.