A dominant day from the middle blockers and a spark off the bench powered No. 1 Nebraska volleyball to a 3-1 win at No. 25 Michigan State Saturday afternoon.
The Huskers dropped the first set before rallying to win the last three and cap the Michigan trip with a 21-25, 25-19, 25-17, 25-12 victory.
“It was an ugly win, but we survived the state of Michigan,” Coach Dani Busboom Kelly said on the Huskers Radio Network. “I feel like Michigan played amazing last night, and we survived that. And then we really struggled tonight and found a way to win.”
Andi Jackson led the Huskers with 12 kills on .360 hitting and six blocks while Manaia Ogbechie added 11 kills on 14 errorless swings (.786 hitting) and eight blocks.
Harper Murray matched Jackson with 12 kills but only hit .147 while Teraya Sigler and Virginia Adriano combined for five kills and six errors on 19 attacks. The Huskers committed five more service errors than the Spartans (12-7) while serving one fewer ace (5-6).
“The passing was not good,” Busboom Kelly said. “Our serving really struggled, and I thought we struggled early to get our pins going. Now, our game plan was to set the middle, and obviously that worked great, but we just couldn’t get those pins going when we needed them.”
Nebraska middle blocker Andi Jackson celebrates after a point against Michigan State. Photo by Nicholas Crep.
Despite the struggles, Nebraska hit .340 and held Michigan State to .093 thanks to the play of the middle blockers plus a combined 10 kills on 10 swings off the bench from Ryan Hunter and Skyler Pierce. Olivia Mauch led the defensive effort with 12 digs while Bergen Reilly finished with 45 assists, six blocks, five digs, three aces and two kills. Nebraska finished with 15 blocks (its second-highest total of the season) while Michigan State recorded 11 (a season-high for a Husker opponent).
The Cornhuskers dominated the last set and a half to improve to 23-0 overall and 12-0 in Big Ten play.
“Ryan helped a ton,” Busboom Kelly said. “Manaia just was so steady, and then she started blocking balls, and I think those two really played great and helped us work out of it. And then I thought Harper and Teraya didn’t have great numbers offensively, but they really hung in there and battled and were passing well. You could tell after game one, they were just working hard to do anything.”
For Michigan State (17-5, 7-5), Lincoln Southwest product Malayah Long recorded a double-double with 26 assists, 10 digs, four blocks, two kills and an ace. Millard West alumna and Louisville transfer Alanna Bankston tallied a team-high 12 kills against her former coach in Busboom Kelly. With starting middle blocker Carmen Waye sidelined with an injury suffered Friday night, junior Breccan Scheck drew the start and gave the Huskers problems with five kills on .571 hitting and seven blocks.
With the victory, Nebraska clinched the Big Ten Discover Volleyball Challenge for the second straight year. The Huskers went 5-0 and only dropped two sets along the way in the matches that counted towards the challnege.
First Set
For the second straight day, the Huskers dropped the first set in Michigan thanks to some sloppy play.
Nebraska middle blocker Manaia Ogbechie walks back to the huddle after a point against Michigan State. Photo by Nicholas Crep.
The set featured five lead changes and eight ties, the last at 17-all. However, a 4-0 run including an ace from Long gave the Spartans the lead for good. Ogbechie tallied back-to-back points with a kill and a block assist to cut the four-point deficit in half at 22-20, but a successful challenge disrupted Nebraska’s rally and sparked a 3-1 finish to the set.
“We just weren’t ready to play,” Busboom Kelly said. “It’s like our heads were somewhere else, and we were thinking about the flight home already. I was just disappointed that this was a top-25 matchup, a full, packed house, and we came out and almost looked disinterested in the match.”
Nebraska committed five attack, four reception, three service and two blocking errors in the set as the Spartans earned a 7-3 edge in service points with four aces and only one error.
“We were not moving our feet, and they were serving tough, and we just were not adjusting to their tough serves,” Busboom Kelly said.
Michigan State out-hit Nebraska .375 to .259. The Husker middles combined for nine kills and only one error on 14 swings, but the pins hit negative collectively (three kills and four errors on 13 attacks).
Second Set
The Spartans fell apart to start set two with five errors on their first eight attacks, allowing Nebraska to jump out to a 9-3 lead. However, Michigan State fired right back with a 4-0 run aided by three Nebraska errors.
The Huskers maintained the lead until Michigan State turned up the pressure from the service line again with a 5-0 run including back-to-back aces for Madi Andrews for a 16-15 lead.
Three more ties followed, but Ogbechie took over with a personal 3-0 run — two kills sandwiching a solo block. Reilly missed her third serve to end the run, but the Huskers closed out the set on a 5-0 run featuring Sigler at the service line.
Ogbechie went 5-for-5 in the set as Nebraska hit .304 and held Michigan State to minus-.095 with seven kills and nine errors. The set included eight blocks (four apiece) and only six total digs.
“We’ve lost a few sets this season, but every time it happens, we say it’s good for us,” Murray said on Big Ten Plus. “We want to be challenged, and we know we’re going to get every team’s best shot. We don’t look at losing a set as a bad thing; we use it as an opportunity to get better and make adjustments.”
Third Set
The back-and-forth play continued into the third set with six ties in the first 14 rallies, but Nebraska took control from there, outscoring Michigan State 8-3 to carry a 15-10 lead into the media timeout.
Nebraska opposite hitter Ryan Hunter takes a swing over a Michigan State defender. Photo by Nicholas Crep.
The Spartans made a brief push, cutting the deficit to two a few times, but the Huskers won eight of the final 10 rallies to take the set and the match lead.
Adriano started the set, but Hunter replaced her after her first time through the front row as she was still sitting on two errors and zero kills. The move paid dividends as Hunter went 4-for-4 in the frame and delivered the set-point kill.
“I told her we might not even set you that much because the middle is working, but we need you to get a great block touch and bring a ton of energy,” Busboom Kelly. “I thought she just focused on what she needed to do to help this team win, and then when the ball came to her, she executed. She was worrying about the team and not herself …
“That’s what her job was, to bring that energy and fire the team up and play with some joy, so it was awesome to see her do that.”
Jackson and Murray also tallied four kills each as Nebraska out-hit Michigan State .452 to .207. After surrendering six aces in the first two sets, the Huskers cleaned up their passing and blanked the Spartans in the third.
Fourth Set
Michigan State kept it close early in the fourth set, but the Huskers used a 5-0 run featuring Sigler at the service line to open up a 14-6 lead, and it was all Huskers the rest of the way.
Nebraska gradually extended the lead as play continued, and Pierce checked in with the Huskers leading 18-9. The junior made the most of her opportunity by going 3-for-3 and delivering the match-point ace in the last 10 rallies.
Nebraska had as many blocks as Michigan State had kills (six of each) to out-hit the Spartans .320 to minus-.091. Hunter continued her strong play to match Pierce with three more kills.
Up Next
Nebraska will get a few days back at home before hitting the road for two more matches — at Oregon Saturday and at Washington Sunday.
“We’ll pace them, but we’ll definitely be in the gym going hard in moments and working on some of the things that didn’t go so great this weekend,” Busboom Kelly said.
However, the Devaney Center won’t remain vacant. While the Huskers are out west, John Cook Arena will host the NSAA State Volleyball Championship finals on Saturday.
