The Huskers didn’t douse their head coach in water or Gatorade in the locker room, but Dani Busboom Kelly said her team was excited in the locker room after No. 1 Nebraska volleyball swept No. 17 Indiana to secure the Big Ten title outright.
The Huskers beat the Hoosiers (22-6, 13-5 Big Ten) in Bloomington 25-19, 25-16, 25-22 on Saturday evening. Nebraska (28-0) has won at least a share of the Big Ten title three years in a row and will head into the final week with an 18-0 record and a 54-1 record in sets.
“It’s a big accomplishment,” Virginia Adriano said on Big Ten Plus. “It’s one of the main goals that we had and it’s really good to be able to get this. I think we struggled a little bit in this game and maybe we weren’t really expecting it. It’s a great atmosphere, and people here are very loud. It was for sure loud and I’m glad we were able to close it in three.”
Busboom Kelly is the first Big Ten head coach to lead her team to a conference title in her first season at the helm. She said her team is ready to celebrate in earnest once they get back home to Lincoln.
Bergen Reilly finished with 33 assists and a match-high nine digs while setting Nebraska to a .340 hitting percentage. Harper Murray led the way with 11 kills on .296 hitting and six digs. Adriano set the tone in set one and finished with nine kills on .412 hitting, six blocks and an ace. Andi Jackson matched her with nine kills on .538 hitting, four blocks and an ace.
Olivia Mauch started at libero and totaled seven digs as Nebraska held Indiana to .147 hitting, thanks in part to an 8-1 edge in blocks.
“That’s a really tough team to play, and they’re always throwing different things at you, and it’s pretty easy to get caught up in that,” Busboom Kelly said on the Huskers Radio Network. “I just thought we played our game and did some really good things.”
The Huskers got off to a slow start with four errors and only two kills (one from each middle blocker) on their first 11 attacks. Nebraska fell behind 9-5, but Murray scored the team’s first kill from a pin after that to trigger a 4-0 run and tie it up.
Following two more ties, Murray terminated again to spark a 4-0 run, putting the Huskers in front. Nebraska continued to find its groove offensively from there, extending the lead to seven before securing the six-point win.
Adriano delivered the set-point kill, her sixth of the frame on .364 hitting to go with three blocks. Murray added five kills on nine swings and five digs. The Huskers shook off the sloppy start to hit .306 and held Indiana to .143.
The Huskers opened game two with a 3-0 run, including an ace from Teraya Sigler, the first of the match after a combined six service errors in the first set. Indiana put together a 6-0 run soon after to take a 9-7 lead, but the Huskers responded with a 10-2 blitz to surge ahead and take control.
Indiana made a brief push, pulling within four, but the Huskers won seven of the last nine rallies to take a 2-0 lead into the intermission. The Huskers out-hit the Hoosiers .385 to .000 as Indiana contributed nine attack errors to Nebraska’s point total.
Nebraska jumped out to a 5-2 lead in set three including two kills and a block assist from Jackson, but three points was as big of a lead as the Huskers managed throughout the set. Indiana kept it close and tied it up twice, at 16-16 and 17-17. However, Nebraska responded with a 3-0 run including a service ace from Laney Choboy and alternated sideouts the rest of the way to complete the sweep.
Indiana played a cleaner set with only four errors, but the Huskers earned a slight edge in hitting, .344 to .321. Murray led the way with five kills while Jackson added four on five attacks.
After five kills on 11 errorless swings from Taylor Landfair in the first two sets, Sigler played all six rotations in game three. Her first attack was a tip and her second missed wide for an error, but she terminated her final two swings.
“I thought she did great,” Busboom Kelly said. “I want her to be a little bit more aggressive. When we want her to go front row, we want her to be a force passing and then to make great decisions in the front row, and I thought she did exactly that.”
Nebraska will close out the regular season back at the Devaney Center with week-10 home matches against Penn State and Ohio State ahead of NCAA Tournament Selection Sunday.
