China Trip Blog Day 2: Nebraska Opens with Sweep

The Huskers began their match schedule in China Thursday evening, sweeping all five sets against the Shanghai Pro B Team, a team comprised of 17 and 18-year olds, 25-7, 26-24, 25-13, 26-24, 15-5.  Freshman Morgan Broekhuis led the Huskers with a match-high 22 kills on .462 hitting, while Lindsey Licht (14 kills on .462 hitting) and Allison McNeal (11 kills on .563 hitting) also turned in solid performances. Kayla Banwarth paced the Huskers with a match-high 26 digs.

The Huskers schedule get more challenging on Friday with a match against the Shanghai Pro A Team, which is comprised of college-age players on Friday morning (late Thursday night U.S. time).

The two setter-right side combinations - Morgan and setter Sydney Anderson, and Lindsay and setter Lauren Cook - were often unstoppable.  Lindsay achieved All-American numbers during the second half of 2009 and now looks very comfortable with Cook feeding her.  Sydney should help Morgan have at least as impressive a freshman year as any of the great right sides of Nebraska's past, including (Lisa) Reitsma, (Nancy) Metcalf, and (Sarah) Pavan. The two powerful right-sides and two talented setters make a 6-2 offense very probable in the fall. 

And how about third-year sophomore Allison McNeal - hitting harder and for a better percentage than ever before as a Husker?  Between Jordan Wilberger and McNeal, the second middle blocker spot should be well managed despite the season-ending labrum injury to Hayley Thramer earlier this spring.  Hayley put off her surgery so she could join us on this China trip.  She participates in stretching and running drills during practice and cheers with the reserves during games.

Nebraska struggled with fundamentals at times and none of the three outside hitters - Hannah Werth, Tara Mueller, or Gina Mancuso- played her best on Thursday, but the setters, right-side hitters, and the libero, Kayla Banwarth, showed that this team can play impressively even when some of the individuals aren't perfect - something not always true for the 2008 and 2009 teams.

China has one-fifth of the world's population, and Shanghai is China's largest city, but we'd never know.  This training center for multiple sports is about a three-square mile area filled with vast concrete arenas for swimming, ping pong, and volleyball training.  The outdoor facilities include multiples soccer fields, beach volleyball and tennis courts, and huge man-made lakes for crew.  The athletes here play for the Shanghai province against other Chinese provincial teams.  They tell us that there are three other massive training compounds like this in Shanghai for other sports and many of these athletes move on to the Chinese national teams.

Here the Huskers can walk from the hotel to the cafeteria and to the volleyball arena. We'll have a few more distractions when we move to a downtown Shanghai hotel tomorrow after the match with the Shanghai Pro A Team.

I'm John Baylor in China with Nebraska Volleyball- describing what I see.