Volleyball Ready for Showdown With No. 2 Nebraska - Tuesday At 7 PM CT - SMU Athletics (2024)

SMU (1-1; 0-0 ACC) vs. #2 Nebraska (3-0, 0-0 Big Ten)
Tuesday, Sep. 3 |7:00 PM CT

– Dallas, Texas

ILive Stats
SMU Notes|Nebraska Notes
Facebook|Twitter|Instagram
SMU Mobile App
Apple|Google Play
Get the ACC Network|ACC Network FAQs

SETTING THE SCENE
After splitting their two meetings in the Hawaiian Airlines Wahine Volleyball Classic to open the season, SMU Volleyball is set to host No. 2 Nebraska for their 2024 home opener Tuesday night inside Moody Coliseum. The Mustangs enter their first season in the ACC following a 26-7 campaign that included winning the American Athletic Conference and reaching the second round of the NCAA Championship.

A LOOK AT THE OPPONENT
#2 Nebraska (3-0)

• Nebraska brings a 3-0 record into Tuesday's contest in Dallas with wins over Kentucky, A&M-Corpus Christi and TCU.
• The Cornhuskers are coming off an NCAA title match appearance and were picked second in the AVCA/TARAFLEX Preseason Poll two weeks ago.
• Nebraska finished the 2023 season at 33-2 (19-1 Big Ten) and reached the NCAA Championship match, falling 3-0 to Texas in Tampa, Fla.
• The Huskers won the Big Ten Championship for the first time since 2017, and head coach John Cook was named AVCA National Coach of the Year and Big Ten Coach of the Year.
• With four freshmen in the lineup, the Huskers won their first 27 matches of the season and held the No. 1 ranking from Oct. 23 through the end of the regular season.
• The Huskers, who had no seniors on their roster in 2023, return 10 letterwinners, including every starter to this year's squad.

ALL-TIME SERIES
Nebraska and SMU Set for Second Meeting

• Nebraska won the first-ever meeting last season in Lincoln 3-0 in the opening weekend of the 2023 season.
• The matchup will mark the Cornhuskers first trip to Moody Coliseum.
• No. 2 Nebraska will be the highest ranked team the SMU Volleyball team has hosted in its 29 seasons of play.

FIRST WEEKEND OF ACTION

• SMU split their two meetings in Hawaii over the weekend. The Mustangs bounced back after a tough five-set loss to Hawaii, with a 3-1 win over San Diego Saturday night.
• Maya Tabron and Celia Cullen were named to the All-Tournament Team after notable performances to open the season.
• Maya Tabron led the team in both kills (29, 3.22 per set) and digs (23, 2.56 per set). Celia Cullen finished the weekend with 81 assists and 13 digs against Hawaii and San Diego.
• The Mustangs held their two opponents to a combined .129 hitting percentage while hitting .250 as a unit themselves.

PRESEASON POLLS

• SMU was picked to finish sixth in the ACC by the league's coaches in the 2024 Preseason Coaches' Poll. The Mustangs garnered 199 points, trailing Pitt, Stanford, Louisville, Georgia Tech, and Florida State in the poll, who all made the NCAA Championship a season ago.
• SMU volleyball team has received 76 votes in the AVCA/TARAFLEX Preseason Division I Women's Volleyball Poll, announced by the organization on August 19.
• The Mustangs, one of seven teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) to earn a spot on the poll or receive votes, finished the 2023 season receiving 46 votes in the final poll of the year.
• SMU is slated to face nine teams this season who appear in the preseason poll in No. 2 Nebraska (Sept. 3 - TICKETS), No. 4 Pittsburgh, No. 5 Stanford, No. 6 Louisville, No. 8 Purdue, No. 9 Kentucky, No. 14 Georgia Tech, No. 20 Florida State, No. 23 Baylor, as well as six teams that received votes in TCU, Houston, Hawaii, San Diego, Miami, and LMU. The Mustangs will host 10 of these 15 teams at Moody Coliseum this season.

AVCA/TARAFLEX POLL

• For the second straight poll, SMU is receiving votes in the AVCA/TARAFLEX poll.
• The Mustangs finished the season receiving 46 votes to be ranked in the final AVCA Poll of 2023, the most of any team receiving votes. In 2024 SMU will face 12 teams that were either ranked or received votes in the final 2023 poll on their schedule.

2023 RECAP

• SMU claimed its third conference title and first since the 2016 season. With its win over North Texas on Nov. 18 in Moody Coliseum, it secured the AAC's automatic NCAA Championship bid. The Mustangs won their first match in the NCAA Championship, sweeping Texas State in Austin.
• Five members of the SMU volleyball team were named to the All-American Athletic Conference teams. Emma Clothier was named the Player of the Year, Celia Cullen was crowned the Setter of the Year, and Sina Uluave was named the Libero of the Year. Jamison Wheeler was tabbed as an All-AAC First-Team Selection, Natalie Perdue earned a spot on the Second Team, and Head Coach Sam Erger was announced as the AAC Coach of the Year.
• SMU swept 10 straight opponents before the second-round matchup with #2 Texas and held a 16-match win streak during the season. SMU picked up 19 sweeps in 2023 and 14 in AAC play. SMU entered the NCAA Tournament match after nine consecutive sweeps. SMU finished league play with an 18-1 record, marking the best conference winning percentage in program history (.947), and won the program's first league title since 2016.
• The Mustangs rode a 15-match win streak into the NCAA Tournament and entered as a No. 7 seed after seven straight sweeps. SMU swept Texas State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to finish the month of November without dropping a set. The 2023 Mustangs finished their campaign with the best team season attacking percentage in program history (.257), tied for the fourth most aces per set (1.50) while recording the eighth most aces in program history with 166. SMU also finished in the top 10 in program history with 446 blocks and passed out the 15th most assists with 1466.

BUILDING SOMETHING SPECIAL

• Sam Ergerwas named just the second head coach in the program's history on Feb. 2, 2022, after spending the previous eight years at Baylor, including the last two as associate head coach. Erger took over for Lisa Seifert, who started the program and holds the SMU record for most coaching wins across all sports (441) and announced her retirement in January of 2022. Erger completed her first season (2022) as head coach on the Hilltop with a 22-10 overall record. Selected fifth in the American Athletic Conference Preseason Coaches Poll, the Mustangs finished third with a 15-5 clip in league play. Marieke van der Mark andJamison Wheelerearned All-AAC First Team honors, andCelia Cullenwas named to the Second Team. It marked the first time since 2019 that two Mustangs earned first-team honors. SMU collected the third most selections in the conference under Erger. Her second season on the Hilltop was one for the record books. Erger was named the 2023 American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year after the Mustangs finished the season with a 26-7 overall record and won the AAC Championship.

BEST VOLLEYBALL CONFERENCE IN THE NATION

• The ACC had six teams that finished in the Top 50 in NCAA RPI last season.
• Adding SMU and Stanford will give the ACC eight teams that finished that high to close out the season entering 2024.
• The ACC had five teams make the NCAA Championship last season, with Pittsburgh reaching the National Semifinals, and will now add Stanford along with the Mustangs, who each made the postseason a year ago. In the last three seasons, the ACC is the only conference to send at least one team and five teams overall to the Final Four.

RETURNING EXPERIENCE
The Mustangs return seven players, nine to the program, from their championship team; six played 100 or more sets for Coach Erger and company in 2023:

SHIMEING STAR

• SMU transfer oppositeNaya Shimeput together an impressive season in her first season on the Hilltop. After spending three seasons at Wyoming, she had a career-best 300 kills in her first year with the Mustangs (fourth-most on the team), including 16 double-digit kill outings. Shime dug 215 balls and turned in 155 kills with 110 digs and 51 blocks coming in conference play. Shime turned in a career-high .889 hitting while adding six blocks and two digs in SMU's sweep of South Florida.

CULLEN SETTING THE MUSTANGS UP

• Cullen was named the American Athletic Conference Setter of the Year after finishing the season, ranking third in the league in assists (1,207) and first in assists per set (10.59). Cullen led the Mustangs in assists in all 33 matches and turned in six double-doubles, including a season-high 58 assists against Florida Atlantic on Oct. 8, 2023. Last season marked Cullen's second on the Hilltop after she spent two seasons at Michigan State. In just two seasons with the Mustangs, Cullen is already in the top 10 in the SMU record books in assists and is poised to climb the rankings with another season leading the charge. Cullen tallied a career-high 19 digs against Baylor (9/06) and a career-high six blocks against Texas Tech (9/15).

WHAT A YEAR FOR JAMS

• 2023 was undoubtedly an excellent year forJamison Wheeler, and she certainly lived up to the preseason hype. After being voted Preseason AAC Player of the Year and a Unanimous Preseason All-AAC Team selection, she proved the voters correct, earning First-Team All-AAC honors after the season. Wheeler led the Mustangs with 367 kills while hitting .249 on the year with a team-high seven double-doubles. She also collected 291 digs, 39 blocks, and 21 service aces, averaging 3.34 kills per set and 2.65 digs per set. She was crowned the AAC Offensive Player of the Week three straight times (Oct. 9, Oct. 16, and Oct. 23) after tallying 243 kills and 179 digs in conference action. Wheeler logged a career-high 26 digs against Texas Tech (9/15) and a career-high five blocks against North Texas (11/17).

FOUR IMPACT TRANSFERS
The Mustangs added four transfers for their inaugural ACC season, adding to an experienced returning group:

• Nnedi Okammor, a middle blocker, transferred to the Hilltop from Florida. In her last season in Gainesville, Okammor logged 108 kills and 120 total blocks in 93 sets played. She put down a career-high 12 kills against Tennessee last season and a career-best 10.0 blocks against Georgia.
• Natalie Fosteris the second transfer to the Hilltop, coming from Wichita State. While with the Shockers, Foster was a two-time All-AAC selection in 2022 and 2023 and a two-time AVCA All-Region North Selection during those same years. She was also named Second-Team All-AAC in 2021. Throughout her career at Wichita State, Foster logged over 1,000 kills (1,079), including 2.73 per set, while hitting .375. At the net defensively, she finished with 322 total blocks.
• Ellie Boltoncomes to SMU from Creighton, where she spent four seasons. While in Nebraska, she collected over 800 digs, 2.40 digs per set. She finished with a career-high 295 digs in 2023, playing in a career-high 82 sets with the Bluejays.
• Maya Tabronis the fourth and final transfer added to the Mustangs' 2024 roster. Tabron comes to Dallas after four seasons at Colorado. During her time with the Buffs, she was named All-Pac 12 Honorable Mention in 2021, as well as a 2x Pac-12 All-Academic Team selection. While in Boulder, Tabron accumulatedover 1,000 career kills, nearly 800 digs, and just under 200 total blocks. In 2023, she played in 30 matches, making 111 set appearances, finishing the season with 331 kills, 263 digs, 55 total blocks, and 28 service aces. She logged eight double-doubles while also reaching career-highs in kills (26 vs. Arizona 11/10) and digs (19 vs. Arizona State (11/9).