LINCOLN — The play became the symbol for everything that went wrong for the Nebraska volleyball team during its stunning loss against Michigan.

A helpless Kayla Banwarth didn't even get half of a second to react before she got blasted in the face by Alex Hunt's blistering kill. On that night, when the Wolverines embarrassed the Huskers in a three-set blowout, Nebraska didn't serve tough, didn't pass well and didn't play as a team.

And what happened when the Huskers weren't even coordinated enough at the net to put up a block?

“You can chip some teeth,” Banwarth said Tuesday, chuckling at the memory.

It's easy for Banwarth to laugh about the loss now, because Nebraska has looked like a completely different squad since that season-opening slap in the face. The fifth-ranked Huskers have won five in a row, including a 3-0 showing last weekend at Louisiana State's Tiger Classic.

Banwarth, a 5-foot-10 junior libero from Dubuque, Iowa, has had a huge hand in the turnaround. The night after the Michigan loss, Banwarth finished with a career-high 32 digs — a school record for the rally-scoring era — in a five-set win over Minnesota. For her work at LSU, Banwarth was named the tournament's defensive MVP.

“We all seemed so lost (against Michigan), and every single person on our team had a bad match,” Banwarth said. “For us, that's motivation, because we don't ever want to feel like that again. Just to get in and work hard every day in the gym, it's what we look forward to now — because we don't want to have another match like that.”

Banwarth hasn't had many off-nights since taking over as the libero midway through her freshman season in 2007. Sure, she endured some ups and downs as a rookie. But her serving, passing and floor defense was a key for NU last season, when she became just the third player in school history to average more than four digs per set and helped the Huskers advance to the final four.

Nebraska coach John Cook hasn't shied away from touting Banwarth's potential to become the best libero in the country.

Part of that is based on the physical strides she made during the offseason. Even more important, Cook said, has been the way she has grown into a leader while owning the role as NU's designated defensive specialist.

“I look at her now, she's controlling the court, and that's what you want out of a great libero,” said Cook, whose Huskers play three home matches this weekend as part of their Players Challenge tournament. “We've seen a lot of liberos do that to us. Now we have a libero who's doing it for us.”

Cook has praised his players for how intensely they trained during the spring and summer, and Banwarth was there leading the charge.

When it came time for NU strength coach Laura Buttermore to measure each player's physical conditioning, Banwarth broke a program record in the pro agility drill — beating previous marks turned in by players such as Dani Busboom, Rachel Schwartz and Jordan Larson.

“Since freshman year, I feel like I've just gradually gotten stronger and quicker and faster,” said Banwarth, who ranks second in the Big 12 with her average of 4.82 digs per set. “That's a credit to Laura and all of our offseason conditioning. We've worked really hard, and I think it shows.”

• NOTES: Sunday's NU-UCLA match at the Devaney Center is close to selling out. As of Tuesday, more than 12,500 tickets had been sold. The Huskers' past two matches at the Devaney Center have been sellouts, including the NCAA regular-season record crowd of 13,412 who watched last year's match against Louisiana State. Tickets may be purchased online at Huskers.com or by calling 800-8-BIGRED. ... Nebraska's Hannah Werth was named the Big 12's rookie of the week Tuesday. While helping the Huskers go 4-0 last week, the freshman outside hitter averaged 2.45 digs and 2.91 kills on .273 hitting.

Contact the writer:

444-1207, chad.purcell@owh.com

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