The 2022 Big Ten volleyball schedule has finally arrived.
The conference released its league schedules on Tuesday morning, giving the Huskers the final piece of their 2022 schedule puzzle.
The Huskers will play Michigan State, Ohio State, Maryland, Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin and Iowa at home and on the road. Nebraska will host Penn State, Indiana and Minnesota once each and will visit Rutgers, Michigan and Illinois one time each. The Huskers will play three matches on Wednesdays, seven on Fridays, six on Saturdays and four on Sundays.
Nebraska will open the and close the conference slate at home. The Huskers will host Michigan State on Friday, Sept. 23, and Ohio State the following day to begin Big Ten play. They’ll play three straight at home at the tail end of league play, facing Purdue on Sunday, Nov. 20; Wisconsin on Friday Nov. 25 and Minnesota on Saturday, Nov. 26 in the regular season finale at the Devaney Center.
Conference (and national) champion Wisconsin plus Purdue and Minnesota (both in a three-way tie for third) all finished in the top five in the league last season and bring back key pieces, which could make that final stretch factor heavily into the 2022 conference race.
After opening the conference schedule at home, seven of Nebraska’s next nine matches will take place on the road. Six of their last nine will take place at the Devaney Center.
Nebraska will open the season with the Husker Invitational on Aug. 26 and 27, welcoming Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Tulsa and Pepperdine to Lincoln. The Huskers will face Corpus Christi and Tulsa on Friday before closing out the tournament against Pepperdine on Saturday. Nicklin Hames,
The following week, Sept. 1-3, Nebraska will host the Ameritas Players Challenge, which will be a three-team event this season as Nebraska looks to cut down on playing multiple matches in one day. The Huskers will face Loyola Marymount on Thursday, Sept. 1, and Mississippi on Saturday, Sept. 3. The Tigers and Rebels will face each other that Friday.
The Huskers will close out their nonconference schedule against Creighton at CHI Health Center Omaha on Wednesday, Sept. 7, at home against Tyler Hildebrand’s Long Beach Sate on Saturday, Sept. 10, and Stanford on Tuesday, Sept. 13, and at Kentucky on Sunday, Sept. 18. Creighton, Stanford and Kentucky all made the NCAA Tournament last year.
In total, 16 of Nebraska’s 30 matches will be against teams that qualified for the 2021 NCAA Tournament.
The Huskers went 26-8 overall in 2021 and finished second in the Big Ten with a 15-4 league record. They advanced to the national championship before falling in five sets to the Badgers.
2022 Nebraska Volleyball Schedule
- Friday, Aug. 26: vs. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 11 a.m. (Husker Invitational)
- Friday, Aug. 26: vs. Tulsa, 6:30 p.m. (Husker Invitational)
- Saturday, Aug, 27: vs. Pepperdine, 7 pm. (Husker Invitational)
- Thursday, Sept. 1: vs. Loyola Marymount, 7 p.m. (Ameritas Players Challenge)
- Saturday, Sept. 3: vs. Ole Miss, 7:30 p.m. (Ameritas Players Challenge)
- Wednesday, Sept. 7: at Creighton, 5 p.m. (at CHI Health Center Omaha)
- Saturday, Sept. 10: vs. Long Beach State, 3 p.m.
- Tuesday, Sept. 13: vs. Stanford, TBA
- Sunday, Sept. 18: at Kentucky, 2 p.m.
- Friday, Sept. 23: vs. Michigan State, TBA
- Saturday, Sept. 24: vs. Ohio State, TBA
- Friday, Sept. 30: at Rutgers, TBA
- Saturday, Oct. 1: at Maryland, TBA
- Friday, Oct. 7: at Michigan State, TBA
- Saturday, Oct. 8: at Michigan, TBA
- Friday, Oct. 14: vs. Penn State, TBA
- Sunday, Oct. 16: Northwestern, TBA
- Wednesday, Oct. 19: at Purdue, TBA
- Saturday, Oct. 22: at Illinois, TBA
- Wednesday, Oct. 26: at Wisconsin, TBA
- Saturday, Oct. 29: vs. Maryland, TBA
- Wednesday, Nov. 2: vs. Indiana, TBA
- Sunday, Nov. 6: at Northwestern, TBA
- Friday, Nov. 11: vs. Iowa, TBA
- Sunday, Nov. 13: at Ohio State, TBA
- Friday, Nov. 18: at Iowa, TBA
- Sunday, Nov. 20: vs. Purdue
- Friday, Nov. 25: vs. Wisconsin, TBA
- Saturday, Nov. 26: vs. Minnesota, TBA
Jacob Padilla has been writing for Hail Varsity since 2015. He covers football, volleyball men’s basketball and prep sports. He also co-hosts the Nebraska Preps Postgame and Nebraska Shootaround podcasts for the Hurrdat Media and Hail Varsity podcast networks. His love of basketball can best be described as an obsession and if you need to find him, he’s probably in a gym somewhere watching, coaching or playing hoops.
