Gophers volleyball ends regular season with two top 10 conference opponents

As the postseason draws the Gophers will end their regular season against two ranked Big Ten opponents. No. 8 Ohio State on Friday and No. 5 Nebraska on Saturday.

The No. 9 Gophers (18-8, 13-5) has won 12 of its past 15 games, with the only losses coming to No. 6 Ohio State (Oct. 12), No. 5 Wisconsin (Oct. 29) and No. 14 Penn State (Nov. 18). Seven of the wins have come in sweeps, with two coming in four sets and one coming in five.

Click the video box above to hear comments from Hugh McCutcheon and Melani Shaffmaster

SCOUTING OHIO ST
• The No. 8 Ohio State Buckeyes (19-7, 15-3 Big Ten) challenged themselves with a difficult non-conference slate, playing seven top-25 teams to prepare them for B1G play. OSU then won 15 of its first 16 league games before dropping matches to Maryland and Indiana last weekend.
• OSU is led by third year head coach Jen Flynn Oldenberg, who is 62-17 thus far for the Buckeyes.
• Setter Mac Podraza leads the B1G with 10.92 assists per set while Emily Londot ranks fifth with 3.73 kills per set. OSU ranks third in the league in hitting (.253), but first in assists (13.10) and kills (14.01) per set. 

SCOUTING NEBRASKA
• The No. 5 Nebraska Cornhuskers (24-3, 16-2 Big Ten) are led by 23rd year head coach John Cook, who’s won four national titles at the helm in Lincoln.
• The Huskers three losses are to No. 6 Stanford, No. 3 Wisconsin and No. 8 Ohio State.
• NU ranks No. 4 in hitting percentage (.250) and blocks (2.74) in the B1G. PSU transfer Kaitlyn Hord leads the Big Ten in blocks (1.61) while Lexi Rodriguez ranks fourth in digs (4.28).
UP NEXT
• The NCAA Tournament Selection Show is set for 6:30 p.m. CT on ESPNU. Minnesota will find out who its first and second round opponents are.

(Gophers athletics contributed information to this article.)