Coliseum crowd benefits Huskers in 2-0 Big Ten Conference start

One would have thought Ameer Abdullah had taken one to the house. And another.

That was the climate at the NU Coliseum Saturday when junior Hannah Werth secured her ninth kill of the match to put the Huskers up 17-10 in the fourth set, leaving victory out of reach for the No. 24 Ohio State Buckeyes. Forced to choose between a Memorial Stadium big screen viewing of NU football and a live showcase of Big Ten Conference volleyball, 4,061 opted to see the No. 10 volleyball team in person.

"Everyone talks about the football game, but I love being a volleyball fan, too," junior Collin Perlinger said. "It's just what being a Husker is all about."

Perlinger, an agricultural economics major, went on to describe the crowd's continued eruption upon seeing each of Werth's 13 kills, five of them coming in the second set.

"You can tell Werth really loves what she does," he said. "She really gets the crowd into it."

It was after the second set that Husker legend Nancy Metalf saw her jersey retired, becoming the seventh Husker to be dealt the honor in the celebrated program's history. She gave mention to the continual support of the coaches and fans during her speech.

But then she said something special, at least to the fans and the coaches in attendance who had thrown their support the program's way for so long. After all, Metcalf had traveled the world with Team USA volleyball, competing in the 2004 Olympics in Greece and attaining a level of clout that only world-class volleyball players could.

"There's no place like Nebraska," she said. "I've been all around the world for volleyball and in my opinion, this is the best place in the world to play volleyball."

It was a moment shared by coaches and fans alike.

"They talk about it being the best place to play volleyball, and it's the best place to be a fan, too," Perlinger said.

Coach John Cook agreed with Metcalf's sentiment, relaying his amazement at the crowd presence in his team's defeat of fifth-ranked Penn State in five sets on Wednesday. Cook also noticed the astonishment of Chinese Olympic gold-medalist Li Shan, who is currently in Lincoln observing NU volleyball.

"(Shan) said ‘There isn't a game better than this,'" Cook said. "She's played all over the world. She was blown away Wednesday night."

Joanne Faul, mother of Buckeye freshman middle blocker Anna Faul described her perception of volleyball at Nebraska. She knew that her scarlet and gray would be competing against a sea of red in the stands from what she and her daughter had gathered from watching NU compete at home on the Big Ten Network.

"It was very crazy and exciting," she said. "It's a very fun venue. I knew there'd be a lot of people here and I knew that everyone would be in red and cheering. I was surprised that I could even cheer ‘Go Bucks' and have people hear it."

Still, she remained jovial and in good spirits even after the Huskers' 3-1 defeat of her daughter's team.

"It was really fun at least to win one (set) in their house," she said.

faizSiddiqui@

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