The Nebraska volleyball team will spend the opening weekend of the postseason at home for the eighth straight season as the NU Coliseum was chosen as one of 16 sites for NCAA first and second-round play next weekend. The Huskers will be making their 30th NCAA Tournament appearance and they will go in as the No. 2 overall seed among the 64 teams.

Play will start on Thursday, Dec. 1 at 4:30 p.m. when the Kansas State Wildcats (20-10) of the Big 12 Conference take on the Wichita State Shockers (21-10) of the Missouri Valley Conference. Nebraska (24-4) will then take the court during Thursday's second match and will face the Jackson State Tigers (26-9), who recently won Southwestern Athletic Conference title. The Huskers' match will start at 7 p.m. or 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first match.

The second round will take place on Friday, Dec. 2, at 7 p.m., as Thursday's winners will compete for the right to move on to the Honolulu Regional the following weekend.

Nebraska used a stifling defensive effort and school-record performance from I-back Rex Burkhead, as Nebraska picked up its ninth win of the season with 20-7 victory Friday afternoon in the inaugural Heroes Game.

In front of a sellout crowd of 85,595, the 318^{th consecutive sellout at Memorial Stadium, and an ABC National audience, Burkhead carried a career-high 38 times for 160 yards and a touchdown to increase his season rushing total to 1,268 yards. His 38 totes broke the school record of 37 by Cory Ross in the 2003 Alamo Bowl, as Burkhead went over 100 yards for the seventh time this season and 11th time in his career.}

While Burkhead punished the Hawkeye defense on the ground, the Blackshirts forced two turnovers and held the Hawkeyes to just 270 total yards, including 88 yards on the ground, to hold Iowa to 100 yards below its 2011 season average of 370.4.

Senior Lavonte David led the Blackshirts with eight tackles, a sack, a forced fumble and fumble recovery in his final game at Memorial Stadium.the Butkus Award semifinalist now has 122 tackles on the season and 274 during his two-year career at Nebraska.

With the win, Nebraska finishes the regular season with a 9-3 record, its fourth consecutive nine-win season under Bo Pelini and 38th time in the last 42 seasons that a Husker football team has won at least nine games.

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