Harper Murray delivered a career-best performance and Coach Dani Busboom Kelly made crucial adjustments as No. 1 Nebraska volleyball reverse-swept No. 7 Kentucky at the Broadway Block Party in Nashville.
The Huskers (4-0) rallied to beat the Wildcats 24-26, 20-25, 25-19, 25-23, 15-9 at Bridgestone Arena Sunday afternoon.
Kentucky (1-1) features two All-American pins that combined to average 9.58 kills per set last season in AVCA National Player of the Year finalist Brooklyn DeLeye and Purdue transfer Eva Hudson, but Murray was undoubtedly the biggest star of the day in a match nationally televised on ABC.
Murray finished with a career-high 23 kills on a season-best .340 hitting, 15 digs, five blocks, two assists and one ace.
“She’s just out there grinding and working really hard,” assistant coach Jaylen Reyes said on the Huskers Radio Network. “I’m proud of her, because we ask her to do everything besides set, and I guess we need her to out-of-system set too.”
DeLeye matched Murray with 23 kills and Hudson added 19, but they combined for 133 attacks and a .172 clip.
Busboom Kelly again alternated starters at opposite hitter, with veteran Allie Szcech getting the call. However, when things weren’t clicking after the first two sets, she made some big changes. She went back to 6-foot-5 freshman Virginia Adriano to generate a bigger block on Kentucky’s pins, but more notably, she made a change at libero with Olivia Mauch donning the jersey and Laney Choboy returning to right back, the role she played last season.
Busboom Kelly also made subtler moves, alternating between Taylor Landfair and Teraya Sigler at different points and strategically inserting Skyler Pierce in certain rotations. Many of the players who saw their role change mid-match took it in stride and contributed when Busboom Kelly called their number again.
“We’re so lucky,” Murray said on ABC. “We can have anyone go in at any point whenever we need them to. We’re beyond lucky. It can be hard competing for spots and fighting for that, but it’s been awesome and we’re really lucky that we have all those girls on the bench ready to go in for us.”
The adjustments stabilized things for Nebraska as the Huskers held Kentucky to 28 kills and a .104 clip in the last three sets after the Wildcats recorded 31 kills on .236 in the first two games. The Huskers’ offense was still up and down, but they found a way to grind out the reverse sweep.
“That takes so much strength, and we weren’t playing Nebraska volleyball in those first two sets,” Murray said. “That’s what we talked about between the second and third, we have to go back to us, go back to Nebraska volleyball and that’s what we’re about, that’s what we did. It was so fun and I’m really proud.”
Rebekah Allick continued her strong start to the season with 10 kills on .300 hitting and eight blocks. Fellow middle Andi Jackson matched her with 10 kills but only hit .185. Bergen Reilly totaled 46 assists, a match-high 18 digs, two blocks and two kills.
Nebraska out-dug Kentucky 73 to 60. Mauch finished with 14 digs while Choboy added 10. Kentucky served one more ace but was also plus-seven in errors with 17 of them.
Nebraska got off to a great start with a couple highlight plays. The Huskers used a 5-1 run including an ace from Jackson to take an 8-4 lead, then they stretched the advantage to five at 13-8 with another 3-0 run.
Sigler made the play of the match during the spurt, sprinting off the court to make a save before crashing through a sign. Choboy dug a big return swing from DeLeye while Sigler was still returning to the court then Nebraska finished the point with a slide to Jackson.
However, after a rhythmless start on offense, the Wildcats settled in and turned the set around, outscoring Nebraska 8-3 to tie it up then scoring three straight to take the lead at 20-18. The Huskers tied it up at 22-22, 23-23 and 24-24, but a Wildcat kill and a Husker error ended it.
Nebraska held a slight hitting edge, .278 to .234, but the Wildcats notched two more kills and dominated in block points with three Nebraska net violations and four Wildcats stuffs. Murray led Nebraska with six kills but also had four errors. DeLeye notched seven kills for the Wildcats.
The third set saw some fierce competition and multiple runs from both sides with 12 ties and five lead changes. However, the Wildcats made the last push, closing the set on a 6-1 run to bury Nebraska in a 0-2 hole.
Kentucky out-hit Nebraska .238 to .222. DeLeye and Hudson combined for 23 kills on 66 swings through two sets.
The Wildcats targeted Choboy heavily in serve receive during the first two sets. For game three, Busboom Kelly made the lineup changes with Choboy and Adriano.
The adjustments worked. After eight ties in the first 20 rallies, the Husker controlled the action the rest of the way in game three, using a pair of 3-0 runs to create some separation and a 4-0 run to open it up further. Allick delivered the set-point kill.
“In women’s volleyball, defense is super important, but I think a big reason why we lost those first two sets, on top of Kentucky playing really well, is our ball-handling was just all over the place, and it wasn’t just Laney, but it was everybody,” Reyes said of the libero change. “I thought Liv did a nice job when we switched to just come in there and not be super frantic. I think our ball control, and I think it was also everybody else around them picked it up, but our ball control and our passing was just, honestly, very horrendous in that first couple of sets for sure.”
Nebraska out-hit Kentucky .323 to .105. The Huskers held DeLeye and Hudson to a combined seven kills with six errors on 25 swings, while Murray terminated on five of her six swings.
The fourth set didn’t go quite as smoothly as the third. Nebraska played with a lead for much of the frame, stretching it to five a couple times, but Kentucky used a 6-1 run to tie it up at 19-all. Two more ties followed, but the Huskers won four of the final six rallies including a pair of kills from Jackson to send the match to a fifth game.
Nebraska only hit .143 to Kentucky’s .182 but benefitted from six Wildcat service errors. Murray tacked on five more kills while Jackson added four.
The fifth set was a game of errors, but slightly cleaner play on the Husker side of the net proved to be the difference. Nebraska delivered the first blow with a 4-0 run, but Kentucky answered with three straight to pull within one. The Huskers then threw the knockout punch with a 4-0 run for a 13-7 lead. Allick had a kill and two block assists while Sigler served an ace. Mauch closed it out, serving up her own ace on Nebraska’s first match-point opportunity.
The Huskers only hit .062, but Kentucky was at minus-.143 as both teams recorded five attack errors. Nebraska was clean from the service line with the two aces while Kentucky misfired twice from the end line.
“It gets the point where it’s like, ‘Hey, this is about let’s just cut the errors and make let them make the errors,’” Reyes said. “That’s basically how we won that fifth set is a lot of the serves at the end weren’t very good serves, we just served them in. They missed a bunch of serves; they missed a couple big attacks. It wasn’t a pretty fifth set. It’s pretty because we won, but it wasn’t a Picasso volleyball set, for sure.”
The fifth set may not have looked like a Picasso painting, but the match itself was a coaching masterpiece for Busboom Kelly as she continues to make the program her own.
“We have a new coach, we have a new program, a new culture, so we’re just focused on being ourselves and doing whatever we can to win and be successful,” Murray said. “It’s been so fun with Dani. It’s been a learning curve for everyone, but it’s been truly amazing.”
