In a conference where some programs can fill a football stadium’s worth of fans to watch women’s volleyball, Northwestern hasn’t been able to keep up with its consistently overpowering Big Ten slate.
In their last season — and first with the addition of four West Coast Big Ten expansion teams — the Wildcats finished second-to-last in the conference with a 5-23 overall record that featured just two home wins.
Rutgers, the only Big Ten team to finish worse than NU, earned its lone conference win at Welsh-Ryan Arena when it took down the ’Cats in four sets during last season’s penultimate contest.
2025 will be coach Tim Nollan’s second year leading the program after his hiring in February 2024. Nollan previously served eight years at the helm of Grand Canyon University’s program. Nollan faced an uphill battle from the start last year, inheriting a program with just nine rostered players after many transferred out during the coaching transition.
To make matters worse, during the two months NU was without a head coach, the program hadn’t scheduled any matches for its upcoming season.
Diving in headfirst, Nollan filled out his coaching staff and welcomed two freshmen and five transfers before his inaugural season commenced.
Among those newcomers was then-junior outside hitter Buse Hazan who led NU in kills last year after transferring from South Florida. Despite leading Nollan’s squad in the category, Hazan ranked 32nd in kills across the conference last year, a testament to the current caliber of Big Ten talent.
Nollan tacked on three recruits and three transfers to his squad this year and told the Daily in March that he feels “farther ahead” in preparing for his second season than he did the previous one.
NU will kick off its season the final weekend of August when it’s slated to play New Mexico State, Eastern Washington and UC San Diego in La Jolla, California.
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