The Cornhuskers will be paying Bloomington a visit this coming Saturday to play the Hoosiers inside the walls of University Gym.
Nebraska currently only has three conference losses under their belt from Wisconsin, Minnesota and Ohio State. Meanwhile, the Hoosiers are coming back into the gym as losers of three consecutive games.
The question IU needs to find the answer to why it hasn’t been executing its game plans they prepare during their practices during the week.
“We’re coming back in on Saturday, and we’re going to keep finding ways to get better,” IU Coach Sherry Dunbar-Kruzan said. “That’s all you really can do at this point. They know how good Nebraska is, but they need to believe that they’re that good, too, and that they can do some great things against them.”
Even after the upsetting loss to Iowa on Wednesday, IU still remains hopeful as it goes into its last seven matches of the season. Senior outside hitter Amelia Anderson said one of the keys to securing a win against the Cornhuskers is going to be mental preparation.
“The season’s not over,” Andersons said. “Yes, we lost, but we have another match on Saturday. Now it’s transferring that practice mentality of bouncing back into the games.”
The idea of bouncing back is also going to be important for the Hoosiers going into Saturday night in order for them to play some “loose volleyball,” which Dunbar-Kruzan said she believes will help contribute to winning on the court.
Another way IU is preparing for the intimidating 18-4 team is by watching film of Nebraska competing against other Big Ten opponents so IU can understand and predict how the other team is going to play.
“Right now Nebraska has a lot of confidence,” Anderson said. “They’re going to come in here with a lot of confidence, and we’re going to have to combat that. We have the advantage of playing them at home, and we always play them at home better. My freshman year we went to five sets with them, so we need to go back to games like that and remember we can take teams like that.”
In comparison to other Big Ten teams, Dunbar-Kruzan said she doesn’t see any major differences. She said Nebraska is a big, physical, fast team and IU will need to work on its serving and passing in order to defeat Cornhuskers.
Most importantly, IU has not given up on its season as it plans to continue to persevere through losses and make the necessary changes to continue finding wins in these last few weeks of the season.
“I believe that they’re going to have a chance on Saturday night,” Dunbar-Kruzan said. “If you don’t believe that, then you can’t show up, and that’s what I told them. At some point you have to believe in you, the determination and the work you put in. It doesn’t matter what everybody else thinks.”
