No. 1 Nebraska volleyball closed out nonconference play with its sixth sweep of the season, taking down Arizona 3-0 late on Saturday night.
The Huskers (10-0) handed the Wildcats their fourth straight loss with a 25-19, 25-23, 25-18 result at the Devaney Center. Many of the 8,625 fans who attended the match got their first look at the new John Cook statue outside the building following Thursday’s unveiling.
Five different Huskers racked up five or more kills in one of the most balanced attacks of the season. Nebraska hit .392, terminating on more than half of its attacks. Bergen Reilly racked up 31 assists in the first two sets alone and finished with 40.
“We passed great,” Coach Dani Busboom Kelly said. “One of our goals going into this match was to pass a certain number, and we hit that, so I thought that was the biggest reason. I thought Bergen just looked super comfortable and smooth, and really impressive match by her.”
Harper Murray led the Huskers with 14 kills on .333 hitting. Andi Jackson went off late to finish with nine kills on .389 hitting. Virginia Adriano matched her with nine kills on .438. Taylor Landfair totaled eight kills on .267 hitting and Nebraska’s lone ace. Rebekah Allick added seven kills on .538 hitting.
“I can imagine it’s really hard for other teams,” Jackson said of the offense firing on all cylinders. “As a middle blocker, I have firsthand experience. When you’re playing a team and all of their hitters are clicking, it’s really, really tough, because you have to honor every single one of them. When we can do that on our side of the net, it just makes everyone’s job super easy. I know it makes the setter’s job super easy, but it’s also all kudos to our amazing passing. I know we talked about we passed a 2.7 this game, and that’s incredible. So obviously the passers did their job, and then Bergen did an awesome job distributing the ball evenly.”
While Nebraska rolled offensively, Busboom Kelly said she got on the team in huddles about their defense more than she has all season. Arizona outside hitter Jordan Wilson went off for 17 kills on .282 hitting while fellow outside hitter Carlie Cisneros added eight kills on .300. Nebraska only recorded three blocks all night.
“I thought our defense tonight was pretty lackluster, so that’s going to be a big focus of this week is we’ve got to be better defensively … All of defense, blocking, digging,” Busboom Kelly said. “I think they hit .250, and the next highest was .173 that’s been hit on us all year. And I don’t want to take away — Jordan Wilson is one of the best outsides will play all year, so that was a challenge. We didn’t make great adjustments like we have this year. When a team’s gotten hot against us, I feel like we’ve been able to make adjustments and shut players down, or at least affect them, and we just didn’t do that tonight.”
Nebraska set the tone from the start, racing out a 6-1 lead with Olivia Mauch serving a 4-0 run and flying around defensively. The Huskers controlled the action the whole way until set point, leading by as much as nine. Arizona made Nebraska earn the final point, but on the Huskers’ fifth try, Murray finally terminated off the Wildcat block.
Nebraska hit .441 with 19 kills and an ace. Murray and Adriano totaled five kills apiece while Reilly dished out 16 assists. Jordan Wilson led the way with six kills on .357 hitting for the Wildcats as they hit .250 as a team. Mauch recorded seven of her match-high 11 digs in the set, starting her third straight match at libero.
“I think anyone who’s going to be in that libero jersey is going to have confidence, and I feel like she’s holding her own really well,” Murray said. “Serve receive is her strength, so that’s something we really use back there, and I’m really comfortable passing next to her, and it’s great to have her next to me. I feel like it’s going to go back and forth between her and Laney [Choboy], and that’s something that’s we’re going to have to adjust to as a team. But they both have their own strengths, and Olivia definitely performed tonight.”
Nebraska used a 3-0 run including a kill and a solo block from Allick to create a bit of separation at 9-4 early in set two. Five is as wide as the gap grew, however, as Arizona rallied to take an 18-17 lead on an Avery Scoggins ace.
Adriano then terminated to end the run, sparking a 5-0 run to put the Huskers back up by four. The Huskers opened the door again with some late errors, but Murray terminated on Nebraska’s third set point to give the Huskers a 2-0 match lead at the intermission.
Nebraska hit .256 to Arizona’s .216. Reilly dished out 15 more assists while Murray tacked on five more kills. Wilson again led everyone with six kills on 12 swings for the Wildcats.
Reilly called her own number twice during a 3-0 run early in set three to give Nebraska an 8-3 lead and trigger an early Arizona timeout. She finished with a season-high five kills on seven attacks (.571 hitting), finishing one shy of her career high in kills to add to Nebraska’s balance.
“Now teams have to honor her as well, and that just adds another thing onto your plate, specifically for the middle blockers again,” Jackson said. “Now you already have to think about pins, the middles, and now you have a front row setter who’s also super aggressive, so it just becomes very overwhelming for other teams, and sometimes they adjust and sometimes they don’t. I think that Bergen, she saw that it was working, and she took advantage of it. Five kills as a setter is ridiculous, but why stop if it’s working?”
Arizona managed to keep the Huskers from extending their lead beyond five until the dam broke late. Adriano served a 5-0 run to give the Huskers set point at 24-16, and a Wildcat service error ended it a few rallies later.
Nebraska hit .542 with 16 kills on 24 attacks. Jackson came alive with five kills in game three, matching Wilson. Arizona hit .286.
Though the Huskers didn’t drop a set, it took them 11 tries to earn their three set points, leaving plenty of room for improvement. Though Busboom Kelly doesn’t see it as an issue moving forward, Jackson said it largely came down to a lack of focus.
“It’s not an excuse, but it was a long day, starting at 8 p.m. We have yet to do that, and it can be a very, very long day just sitting around, waiting for serve and pass and then waiting for the game, and so learning how to adjust to that, obviously, because I know when we go to the West Coast, those are going to be really late games … We bounced back from it and we won, and we’ve talked about it a lot: we’re grateful to win, we don’t want to feel relief when we win.
“It’s an exciting thing, so taking it for what it is, but not letting it happen again and adjusting from here on out.”
Up next for Nebraska is a mid-week Big Ten home opener against Michigan Wednesday.
