Anderson a big key for Huskers

In August, Nebraska coach John Cook said he didn't know much about his new setter Sydney Anderson.

Two months later, he knows a lot.

He knows that Anderson is a competitor who can set, dig, block and even attack.

"That's why we can hit .250, hit .230 and still win," Cook said. "Maybe we're struggling, but she'll make some play. She'll block a ball. She'll dig a ball. She'll kick a ball. Whatever she has to do.

"She just has a knack for making big plays. To me, that's being a competitor."

Anderson and the No. 2-ranked Huskers (15-0, 6-0 in the Big 12) continue conference play at 7 p.m. tonight against Oklahoma (8-7, 2-3) at the NU Coliseum. That match can be seen live on ESPNU (channel 613 DirecTV, channel 148 Dish Network).

Anderson has definitely been a force for the Husker offense. She has 45 kills in 90 attacks and is hitting .422 for the season.

 "She has a great feel for the game," Cook said. "She's a great competitor. She has a knack for making plays when we need them."

Anderson said it's just a matter of knowing when to attack.

"It's just at that moment, you see a blocker, a great pass, the other team is off guard," Anderson said. "I feel that, I see that and I go for it."

Anderson, who played her freshman season at the University of Utah, said she didn't attack nearly as much during her one season with the Utes.

"Utah was wanting me to focus on setting the offense and setting my hitters, which is a good way to go," Anderson said. "Here it's another attacker our opponents have to worry about."

One of her most important jobs as setter is to get all the Husker hitters involved in the offense. It's also important for her to show confidence in a hitter when she's struggling.

Cook said there were two great examples of that.

One was Kansas State when redshirt freshman Brooke Delano had several hitting errors in a row, but Anderson went back to her three straight times at the end of the fourth game until she put one away.

Another was the next match against No. 3 Texas. Sophomore Tara Mueller, along with libero Kayla Banwarth, had been held out of the K-State match for disciplinary reasons.

Anderson made a point of going back to Mueller against Texas so she could get the final kill of the match.

Anderson says that's just part of being a setter.

"If somebody gets blocked or they hit it out, they're not feeling that great about themselves right now," Anderson said. "As a setter, I like to motivate them any way I can and I believe that's one way to do that and  to get their confidence back and let them take another swing at it."



Quick sets

The Nebraska senior class of Amanda Gates, Jordan Larson and Rachel Schwartz accomplished a first for the Husker program. They became the first senior class to go an entire career without losing a regular-season non-conference match.

The Huskers finished that streak off with a 3-0 sweep of Creighton on Oct. 5. That gave the seniors a perfect 34-0 record in those matches during their careers. That 34-0 mark includes 16 matches against ranked teams and eight against top-five teams.



Senior middle blocker Amanda Gates had a great high school career at Columbus High. Gates helped the Discovers to four straight state appearances, including a Class A runner-up finish her senior season.

Although she is Catholic, Gates said she just didn't want to play at Class C-1 power Columbus Scotus.

"My mom went to Scotus and most of her family did too," Gates said. "I didn't really want to go there. It's a great program with John Petersen over there, but we had a great program at Columbus High. We had eight seniors in my class and were runner-up and made it to state all four years.

"I'm pretty proud of that."