Strong serving and a spark off the bench powered No. 1 Nebraska to a 3-1 win over No. 25 North Carolina in the first match of the Ameritas Players Challenge Friday night.
The Huskers (9-0) served 13 aces — a new Devaney Center record and the highest total for the program since tallying 14 against Alabama in 2005 — en route to a 25-14, 20-25, 25-21, 25-10 victory.
“Crazy,” Coach Dani Busboom Kelly said of the ace total. “We’ve been working really hard on serving. We’ve been saying that from the beginning of the year, and it’s great to see us get better and better and different players start to really get their serve going. We’ve seen Laney [Choboy] get hers going. I thought tonight, Teraya [Sigler] served much better. Liv [Mauch] had some really great serves; we’ve been challenging her to be a little bit tougher.
“It was just good to see some of those players that haven’t maybe had a great serving match have one tonight.”
Five Huskers finished with multiple aces: three apiece by Choboy, Sigler and Mauch and two each by Harper Murray and Andi Jackson.
Nebraska trailed the Tar Heels in the third set after splitting the first two when North Carolina native Ryan Hunter checked in and changed the game. The second-year opposite hitter had seven career kills heading into Friday and nearly doubled that total by the end of the night, terminating on six of her seven swings off the bench for a .714 hitting percentage.
“We call them game-changers, people who come off the bench and come into a game to make changes and to help us slow down the game a little bit,” Murray said. “I think for people on the court, it’s a little bit of a relief, because we made the change and we slowed down the game, and then they were able to execute. I know my perspective is a little bit different because I’m on the court, but I think it also just comes from excitement that we see them put that work in, and now they get their chance and they execute it. I think Ryan’s energy tonight really helped us, and I think that’s what turned around the game.”
Hunter earned some personal bragging rights along with the win for her team. When she heard her name during player introductions prior to the match, she ran across the net and embraced a handful of other North Carolina natives on the Tar Heels’ roster, including former club teammates.
Harper Murray (27) spikes the ball against North Carolina middle blocker Lauren Schutter (3). Photo by John S. Peterson.
“It felt great seeing them again, given we spent what the 17s and 18s years just together,” Hunter said. “Seeing them felt very nice, and playing against them felt even better because it’s kind of like we’re all friends on that team, so it’s kind of like that little, ‘I’m going to get you’ type of attitude. It felt great; I was very glad to see them.”
Murray seemed to feed off the spark Hunter provided as she bounced back from the first negative hitting match of her career against No. 20 Creighton to tally 10 kills in the final two sets, finishing with a team-high 12 on .346 hitting and six digs. The senior entered Friday’s match hitting .178 on the season.
“I haven’t been the happiest with my performance the last few weeks in games, so tonight felt better than it has the last few times I’ve been out there,” Murray said. “Jaylen [Reyes] and I have been talking a lot about my footwork and how I can improve little things, and I think at the end of the day, it’s all going to come together. I definitely haven’t been feeling the most confident recently, but it’s so early on, and I just have to keep reminding myself of that, and I know it’s going to work out. I just have to give it time and let it let it run its course because volleyball, again, is a game of errors, so it’s never going to be perfect.
“But I definitely feel like this game was a good start to getting my confidence back.”
Jackson added 10 kills on .571 hitting and four blocks. Bergen Reilly totaled 34 assists (moving into fourth place an Nebraska’s all-time chart), eight digs and three kills while setting Nebraska to a .286 hitting percentage. Mauch led the defensive effort with 10 digs and seven assists while Choboy added seven digs as Nebraska out-dug the Tar Heels by 12 and held them to .123 hitting. North Carolina only recorded five aces while misfiring nine times, one more than Nebraska.
First Set
Nebraska dominated the first set from the service line with Mauch starting the party with an ace during a 4-1 opening spurt. Murray then served a 5-0 run with two more aces to build a 12-4 lead.
Three straight errors (one serving, one attacking, one ball-handling) halted Nebraska’s momentum, but the Huskers righted the ship to rip off a 9-2 run and earn set point. The Tar Heels held off the Huskers for two rallies before an errant serve ended it.
Nebraska only hit .261 as each of its five attackers misfired one time, but Sigler and Jackson tallied four kills apiece to lead the way. North Carolina hit .000 and went 21 rallies between kills at one point.
The Huskers notched six aces from four different players without surrendering one to the Tar Heels, and Nebraska out-blocked North Carolina 4-2 as well.
Second Set
North Carolina leveled the playing field at the service line in the second set and the Huskers failed to compensate with their offense. The frame featured 10 ties and five lead changes after a near wire-to-wire Husker win in set one.
Nebraska’s last lead came at 18-17. From there, Julia Bohlinger served a 5-0 run to put the Tar Heels in front for good. Manaia Ogbechie — back in the lineup after missing Wednesday’s match with an illness — finally earned the sideout with a kill on a quick set, but a Husker missed her serve then two Tar Heels teamed up to stuff Virginia Adriano. Nebraska saved one set point with its own block, but opposite hitter Chalsea Thorpe fired back with a laser from the left pin for her ninth kill to end it.
Nebraska managed just nine kills with seven errors, hitting .059. The Tar Heels hit .188 with 12 kills, four blocks and three aces.
“I think our passing broke down a little bit,” Busboom Kelly said. “I just thought we got tight. I don’t know if there’s any one thing you can really put your finger on, except for we got in a couple passing ruts against certain servers. I just thought overall we let our foot off the gas and got a little complacent, so it was good to see us come out after the break and play really well and fight really hard.”
Third Set
Nebraska’s offensive woes continued into the third set as UNC used a 4-0 run featuring two more rejections to take a 6-2 lead before Murray managed to tool the block. That triggered a streak of 10 straight sideouts. With Adriano struggling (four kills and five errors), Busboom Kelly sent Hunter out to play opposite, and she missed on her first swing to extend North Carolina’s lead to 12-8, triggering a Husker timeout.
Reilly went back to Hunter out of the timeout, and this time she terminated to trigger a 4-0 run featuring a pair of kills each from the sophomore and Murray to tie it up at 12-12.
Ryan Hunter celebrates after a point in Nebraska volleyball’s 3-1 win over North Carolina. Photo by John S. Peterson.
“Ryan’s just got that attitude, like she’s going to see the ball and hit the ball,” Busboom Kelly said. “I told her at that timeout, like, ‘Hey, don’t let that bother you; we need you to swing.’ I felt like we were missing that in the first two sets, is just a pin that was just going to go after it and not worry about what happened, what the result was. She kind of brought that fire and that energy, but that’s the type of player she is. Super energetic, super athletic. She’s not going to tip.”
Thorpe ended the run with a kill, but Nebraska won six of the next eight rallies to take an 18-15 lead then traded sideouts the rest of the way. Jackson delivered the final kill to seal it.
After the slow start, Nebraska rallied to hit .353 with 18 kills — with Hunter’s four leading the way. The Huskers found their rhythm despite operating out of system often as well as Mauch tallied four assists and Jackson added two, both to Murray.
“Those are the plays that we train for,” Murray said. “I think that’s why it’s so exciting when plays like that happen. We always talk about everyone needs to be a setter or know how to set the ball in general, so I think when those plays happen, those are the type of plays that give you momentum and give you a little bit of excitement. I think that happened maybe two or three times.
“I think, again, that plus Ryan’s energy plus us turning around after that second set and coming out, I think it was just all eventually going to go our way, and we were able to feed off of that.”
Fourth Set
Nebraska made sure to dash North Carolina’s upset hopes from the start of set four. Murray opened with a personal 4-0 run all on touch calls. North Carolina finally earned the sideout with a kill on the fifth rally, but Nebraska responded with an 8-0 run including three aces from Choboy to blow the game open.
North Carolina scored three straight to end the run, but the Tar Heels only won six more rallies the rest of the way as Nebraska cruised to the finish.
The Huskers notched 11 kills on just 14 swings, hitting .714. Murray tallied five of the kills herself on six swings.
“I thought she started making better decisions,” Busboom Kelly said of Murray. “She started attacking their block, and it’s like any player: once you have a little bit of success, you get a little more confident. It was good to see her use those swings there and early in game three to really build on and have more success and confidence as the game went on.”
Nebraska held North Carolina to .000 hitting and just six kills while scoring eight points in the service game (four Husker aces and four Tar Heel errors).
Up Next
The Tar Heels will face Florida Gulf Coast on Saturday in the second match of the Ameritas Players Challenge while the Huskers take the day off. Nebraska will return to John Cook Arena on Sunday to face the Eagles.
First serve is set for noon with Big Ten Plus streaming the match.
