Dani Busboom Kelly and Bergen Reilly both passed milestones Thursday night as No. 1 Nebraska volleyball swept No. 16 Penn State at Rec Hall.
The Huskers (14-0, 3-0 Big Ten) hit .419 to take down the Nittany Lions 25-20, 25-17, 25-18 for the 250th win of Busboom Kelly’s career. She’s the fourth-fastest coach to reach that mark and carries an .847 career winning percentage.
“I had no clue about any of that, so when they told me that on the TV interview, I was like, ‘Oh wow, I had no idea,’” Busboom Kelly said on the Huskers Radio Network. “I feel very honored, and the fact that I’ve had amazing staffs and programs, that makes all the difference.”
Penn State hit .230, the second-highest by a Nebraska opponent this season, but the Huskers outscored the Nittany Lions 15-7 in the red zone to secure three comfortable set wins.
“It was a fun game, and I honestly didn’t think it was our best volleyball, which is crazy when I looked at the stats and we hit over .400,” Busboom Kelly said. “I thought we won with some grit tonight, and I think Penn State gave us almost what they had, all they had, and we handled it really well. When we started to feel like we were getting back in the corner, we took big rips, and again, just played with a lot of grit tonight.”
Bergen Reilly finished with 34 assists, 16 digs and three blocks. She passed assistant coach Kelly (Hunter) Natter on Nebraska’s career assists chart during the second set, moving into third place behind Nicklin Hames and Fiona Nepo (and second place during the rally scoring era behind only Hames).
Harper Murray led Nebraska with 13 kills on .400 hitting, four blocks and two aces. Since hitting negative against Creighton, the senior has tallied double-digit kills in five of her six matches while hitting over .300 in four of them. Busboom Kelly said she was impressed with the way Murray was so efficient despite getting so many out-of-system sets.
“I feel like, over the season, I haven’t been starting off strong, and so I feel like Bergen did a good job of getting me going early and I feel like that helped a lot, not just for my confidence but the team’s,” Murray told Big Ten Network. “That’s what I’m proud of, and I feel like Bergen and I have been working on our connection a lot the last few games and I feel like it paid off.”
Andi Jackson added 11 kills on 16 swings, hitting .625 and recording a season-high seven blocks. She’s hit over .600 in three of her past four matches and is now hitting .503 on the season.
“I think the rest of our team is playing a little bit better offensively, so you can’t key on Andi,” Busboom Kelly said. “And if you’re not literally committing with her, you’re going to get beat by her. I think it makes it very difficult for opponents to stop us when we’re in system.”
Teraya Sigler made her return to playing six rotations after last week’s injury and looked fresh, tallying eight kills on .412 hitting with five digs. Virginia Adriano chipped in six kills on .308 hitting. Olivia Mauch had eight digs and one ace while Laney Choboy added six digs and two aces. The Huskers out-blocked the Nittany Lions 10 to two.
Star opposite hitter Kennedy Martin scored a match-high 18 kills on .275 hitting while former Husker Whitney Lauenstein added 12 kills on .3233, but the rest of the Nittany Lions combined for just 12 kills.
First Set
Nebraska raced out to a 7-1 lead in game one thanks to an error-filled start for the Nittany Lions featuring four miscues, including two Nebraska blocks.
Penn State settled in from there, with Lauenstein leading the charge, but Nebraska managed to maintain a healthy cushion most of the way thanks to a clean start.
Nebraska’s pins left some kills on the board, allowing Penn State to use a 4-1 run to pull within one at 19-18. Out of a Husker timeout, the teams traded kills, then Nebraska closed the set on a 5-1 run including aces from Choboy and Murray and a set-point kill from Sigler.
The Huskers out-hit the Nittany Lions .414 to .353 despite six kills from Lauenstein. Jackson and Murray led Nebraska with four kills apiece, the former doing so on five errorless swings. Nebraska earned a 5-1 edge in service points thanks to those red zone aces plus three errors from the Nittany Lions.
Second Set
Penn State got off to a much better start in set two, jumping out to a 3-0 lead, but the Huskers quickly responded with a 6-1 run — including two kills and two blocks assist from Jackson — to take the lead.
Four more ties followed before Nebraska put together another 6-1 run including an ace from Mauch to build a 16-11 advantage. Campbell Flynn checked in as a serving sub with Nebraska up 19-14 and extended the lead even more with a 4-0 run, then a few rallies later Manaia Ogbechie ended it with a kill and a block assist, teaming up with Murray to stuff former Husker Caroline Jurevicius on set point.
The Huskers hit .455 behind four kills apiece from Murray and Sigler. Penn State hit .206 despite seven kills from Martin. She and Lauenstein combined for 11 of the team’s 13 kills.
Third Set
Nebraska answered a 3-0 Nittany Lion spurt with a 4-0 run of its own, including a Choboy ace, then played from ahead throughout the first half of the set. Penn State rallied to tie it at 12-all, but Nebraska surged back in front with a 4-0 run including another Murray ace.
Five straight sideouts followed, and Ogbechie thought she had a sixth, but officials whistled her for a net violation. Nebraska thought differently, marking the first of three straight Husker challenges. The first didn’t go their way, but the last two did, extending the lead to 20-16.
Ryan Hunter celebrates after a point in Nebraska volleyball’s 3-1 win over North Carolina. Photo by John S. Peterson.
Martin scored a kill — without a challenge — to get Penn State back on the board, but Nebraska won the next four rallies to earn match point. Busboom Kelly sent in Ryan Hunter to help close the match, and after a Lauenstein kill, Reilly went to the sophomore to end it as the lefty went cross-court and clipped the sideline for the win.
“Honestly, I thought about doing it earlier,” Busboom Kelly said of calling Hunter’s number. “We just were having trouble with Lauenstein out there, and I thought, ‘Well, let’s see what Ryan can do.’ I was going to do it a little bit sooner, but I didn’t have the guts that early. We need her to be able to come in and make some plays, and I truly believe she can. We just have to find some better opportunities to get her in there and get her some confidence and some playing time to, I think, put her in a real heat of the moment.
“It would have been epic, because I said, ‘OK, I’m subbing Ryan in to get this last block,’ and she almost had it. That would have been an epic coaching move if it would have ended the game. But she did get the last kill, so that was fun.”
Nebraska hit .448 behind five more kills from Murray, who showed some fire with a bit of back-and-forth chatter and stares through the net throughout the match.
“My coaches say I play better when I’m mad, so maybe I was a little mad, and I think it fires the team up,” Murray said. “Ryan had that intensity a few games ago when she came in and we’ve been talking about that a lot, coming in with that fire, because we play better like that.”
Martin and Lauenstein combined for 11 of Penn State’s 13 kills again, including eight from Martin, as the Nittany Lions hit .242, not nearly enough to keep up with the Huskers.
Up Next
Busboom Kelly said the Huskers will remain in State College Thursday night before continuing on to College Park for Saturday’s match at Maryland.
“We’ll get to enjoy an evening with some families that are here, and then we’ll head out to Maryland in the morning and practice in the afternoon, and then get ready for the game on Saturday,” Busboom Kelly said.
The Terrapins enter Saturday’s meeting at 11-3 following a five-set home win over Iowa on Thursday. They dropped their first two Big Ten matches to top-20 opponents in Purdue and Indiana.
Maryland has been without its top attacker in graduate outside hitter Haley Melby recently, but freshman Ava Brown has stepped up in her stead, tallying a season-high 18 kills on .400 hitting against the Hawkeyes. She’s averaging 2.68 kills per set on .311 hitting this season. Senior Sydney Bryant (3.28 kills per set on .265 hitting) returned to the lineup against Iowa after missing time.
Maryland runs a one-setter offense with Sara Toth ranking third in the Big Ten at 11.15 assists per set.
First serve on Saturday is set for 6 p.m. CT. The match will be streamed on Big Ten plus for subscribers, while the Huskers Radio Network will carry John Baylor and Lauren (Cook) West’s call as always.
