Big Ten Weekly Volleyball Central - Oct. 8-14

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• The Big Ten Conference and Big Ten Network (BTN) announced a newly created In-Season Volleyball Challenge. Partnering with Discover®, the official credit card of the Big Ten Conference, the inaugural Discover In-Season Volleyball Challenge will debut during the 2025 regular season conference schedule, starting Oct. 1, encompassing all 18 Big Ten Volleyball programs.  Select conference matches played during the month of October will count toward the Discover In-Season Volleyball Challenge. Each team will play five designated challenge matches throughout the month, with the winner determined by the highest win total across the five games. Designated matches for the challenge will be noted on the adjacent schedule. 
• Seven Big Ten volleyball programs were among this week’s AVCA/TARAFLEX Top 25, announced on Monday: #1 Nebraska, #7 Wisconsin, #12 Purdue, #14 Minnesota, #19 Penn State, #20 Indiana and #22 USC. UCLA and Illinois are receiving votes in this week’s poll.
• Indiana, Nebraska and Wisconsin remain undefeated in Big Ten play through two weeks. Nebraska (14-0) is one of just two teams nationally (Texas, 12-0) that boast an unblemished overall record. 
• After picking up a pair of ranked wins in Los Angeles, the Hoosiers made their first appearance in the AVCA/Taraflex Top 25 since 2010. The No. 20 national ranking is also the highest in program history. Indiana is enjoying its best start to Big Ten play in 40 years. The Hoosiers are 4-0 in the conference for the first time since 1985 and will head to Michigan and Michigan State this weekend as conference play continues. 
• Nebraska is first nationally in opponent hitting percentage at .102. The Huskers led the nation in opponent hitting percentage in 2022 and 2023 and were sixth in 2024. 
• Four Big Ten teams are in the top eight nationally in hitting percentage: Wisconsin (2nd, .333), Nebraska (3rd, .327), Indiana (4th, .311) and Minnesota (8th, .295). 
• Purdue’s Kenna Wollard was named AVCA National Player of the Week on Tuesday. Wollard led the Big Ten in kills (49) last week, including a 33-kill outing on an efficient .369 hitting percentage at No. 24 UCLA. Wollard led the Boilermakers to a sweep at USC, totaling 16 kills and three blocks. 
• The Nebraska-Penn State match on Friday averaged 1.05 million viewers on FOX and became the second most-watched match in network history. 
• The Nebraska-Rutgers match on Saturday set an attendance record with 8,000 fans at Jersey Mike’s Arena, making it the most-watched volleyball match in the state of New Jersey. 
• NBC will carry its first of two Big Ten matches this season on Saturday as UCLA hosts USC at 3 p.m. ET. NBC is also set to broadcast Nebraska at Minnesota on Nov. 8 at 3:30 p.m. ET. 
• The We Give Blood drive turns school pride into life-saving purpose. Powered by Abbott and the Big Ten, this is the largest blood donation competition of our time - tackling the national blood shortage. Students, fans, alumni and communities across the country are backing their favorite Big Ten schools by donating blood. Every donation can help save up to three lives - and bring your school one step closer to winning $1 million to advance student or community health. You can find any blood center or mobile drive in the U.S. to donate blood between August 27 and December 5 and upload proof of donation at BigTen.Org/Abbott or text DONATE to Abbott (222688) and follow the prompts. Messaging and data rates may apply.