Baylor Looks Ahead to Volleyball Tourney Time as Regular Season Winds Down

With four games to go in the conference season and just a few weeks before the conference tournament gets underway, Head Coach John Cook and the Husker volleyball team enter familiar territory. Tied with Wisconsin for the top spot in the Big Ten, Nebraska stands in well-worn court-side seats eyeing the prospects of what the post season will mean in 2021.

The Huskers face the 15th-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions and Rutgers this weekend. Then the Holiday weekend gets even tougher.

“We’ve got a chance to really help our resume, but most importantly our confidence,” said John Baylor, Voice of Husker volleyball, at Monday’s Executive Club luncheon at the Hilton Garden Inn in the Haymarket district of downtown Lincoln. “By competing well and trying to steal one at Wisconsin, Thanksgiving weekend and then another one at Purdue the next night on Saturday. We have the toughest path to win the Big 10. Does anybody care about winning the Big 10?”

Baylor asked that question facetiously because he knew exactly how the five-time national champion coach feels about winning conference championships.

“The coach (Cook) really puts an emphasis on winning the conference tournament. We’re 13-3 in conference with 4 matchups to go,” Baylor said about the meaning of each post season tournament. “Our RPI is 15th in the country and that’s what the selection committee uses to put together their seedings for the tournament.”

The NCAA volleyball tournament will begin on December 2nd and will conclude with the final four in Columbus, Ohio and the semifinals being held on December 16th followed by the championship game on December 18th.

Baylor is in his 28th year on the radio call of Nebraska volleyball and has covered only two coaches, Cook and Terry Pettit, the predecessor who won the initial Husker national championship in 1995.

“I like to call my job (announcing) the greatest show on Taraflex (surface). Because from the beginning with Terry Pettit and John (Cook), we’ve just witnessed over the past decades is such focused driven individuals and these gentlemen are undistracted and single-mindedly focused on the product,” Baylor gushed. “And we are the beneficiaries of it. I’m often reminded of this single-minded focus and how important it can be in my job.”

Moving forward to the present, Baylor reflects on the things that help separate the Husker volleyball team from their competition.

“Our back row has really been solid. I’ve seen glimpses of some of the best back-row-floor defensive play that I’ve ever seen at Nebraska and that’s saying a lot with some of the Olympic players of the past,” Baylor said. “The future’s bright for this team, as well. With freshman libero Lexi Rodriguez, outside hitter Lindsay Krause and freshman Ally Batenhorst, who just played her best match of the year by far this past Sunday. She was hitting better than .400 until her last swing went into the net against Indiana.”

But, Baylor was not finished with his praise towards the freshman on this year’s team.

“Whitney Lauenstein may be the best athlete of them all. She hits with such power, but you just don’t always know where it’s going. She has a tremendous upside. The crowd goes crazy when she comes in.”

The Big Ten season has been a bit of topsy-turvy event and hard to predict or put a finger on, according to Baylor. But, he thinks he’s got a good eye on the comparison of it all when he looks at the wins and losses in conference.

“So, how did we beat Purdue and then Purdue beats Wisconsin, twice? And Wisconsin is in our heads, we haven’t won a single game against them in 5 straight matches. So how does all this happen? I think it all has to do with matchups. We match up well with Purdue and Illinois, we are in their heads. And Wisconsin is in our heads.”

In the latest Division I AVCA Coaches Poll, there are 7 Big Ten teams ranked in the Top 25. Nebraska is ranked 11th with Wisconsin, Purdue, Minnesota and Ohio State ranked ahead of the Huskers and Penn State and Illinois behind.

It looks like we’ll have to wait and see who matches up with who, in the conference and NCAA tournaments in 2021.?