After an eventful start to the season with four matches in three different arenas, No. 1 Nebraska made its official home debut with a sweep against Horizon League favorite Wright State Friday night.
The Huskers (5-0) swept the Raiders 25-16, 25-16, 25-20 in front of 8,731 fans at the Devaney Center in the first match of the Ameritas Players Challenge.
Harper Murray led the way with 11 kills on .500 hitting, nine digs, two blocks and an ace, continuing her stellar start to the season, but it was a freshman making her first start who stole the show.
Coach Dani Busboom Kelly gave senior middle blocker Rebekah Allick the night off to get a look at Manaia Ogbechie, and the freshman made the most of her first start with eight kills on .583 hitting and five blocks.
“She reads the game really well for a freshman, and she hates when you even say that — as a freshman,” Busboom Kelly said. “She’s like, ‘I don’t want to be viewed as a freshman,’ which, that’s an amazing mentality to have. She reads really well and she’s super powerful and she’s not afraid to swing. She’s going to go for it, so we wanted to see her do that in the game, and not just for a few points, but see what that looks like consistently for three full sets.”
Virginia Adriano earned the start again at opposite hitter and had the best offensive showing of her young Husker career, finishing with seven kills on .286 hitting and four blocks.
“It’s important for her and Bergen [Reilly] to feel more comfortable with each other, and for Bergen to know what kind of set she needs,” Busboom Kelly said. “That was great, I thought, tonight; both of them together connected really well and Virginia looked a little bit more like herself than she has the last couple games.”
While the 6-foot-5 Adriano has contributed as a blocker this season, she had nine kills and 10 errors as an attacker heading into the match. She said Friday’s successful did a lot for her confidence.
“Recently I’m struggling a little bit, just to get used to adjusting my tempo, my approach and everything,” the Italian freshman said. “So it feels great … I’m trying to push hard every practice, to try to get better and better. I’m still struggling a little bit because it’s very different.”
Reilly finished with 30 assists, nine digs, two kills and an ace. Laney Choboy started at libero and tied Reilly and Murray with nine digs to lead the Huskers. Nebraska hit .330 and held Wright State to .073 in the first of four straight matches inside the friendly confines of the newly-dubbed John Cook Arena.
“The game routine is really important, I think, especially for the younger players and newer players, to figure out what their routine is,” Busboom Kelly said. “It’s hard to figure that out on the road, because practice times are different times, and you’re moving, and in Nashville, we had all sorts of different things to deal with. So now this is the time they can really hone in on what’s going to make them great when they step on the court. So it’s really, really beneficial to be back here, and this is a great weekend for them to figure that out.”
Teraya Sigler opened the match with an ace and a 3-0 run, but the Huskers weren’t particularly crisp from there. The Raiders managed to take a 13-12 lead midway through the set before things started to click for Nebraska. The Huskers responded with a 10-1 run including a 7-0 stretch with Murray serving. In all, they won 13 of the last 16 rallies to take a 1-0 match lead, with Reilly calling her own number to seal it.
Nebraska hit .357 despite the slow start and held the Raiders to minus-.030.
After Taylor Landfair notched three kills in the first set, Busboom Kelly turned to redshirt freshman Skyler Pierce to play in the front row for Sigler in the second and third sets.
The Huskers fell behind early again before putting a 7-1 run together to take an 11-7 lead. They blew it open after that with an 8-2 run to stretch the lead to nine, and Adriano closed out the set not long after that.
Ogbechie set the tone with a kill on the opening point, the first of five in the set to go with five blocks. Murray led the Huskers with six kills, though Wright State’s Mya Ayro got loose for seven kills on 11 swings. Nebraska hit .364 to the Raiders’ .069.
The third set saw the slowest start of the night for the Huskers, who fell behind by five multiple times. Trailing 11-6, Nebraska turned the game around with a 10-2 run including three kills from Andi Jackson. The Huskers continued stretching it out to earn match point at 24-17. Wright State made the Huskers earn that final point, but Jackson closed it out with a kill on their fourth match point.
Nebraska only hit .214 in the third as Jackson’s four kills led the way. The Huskers held Ayro to three kills with four errors after her big second set while the Raiders hit .147 as a team.
“I think Wright State’s a solid team, and I was talking to our players about how they’re trained to go for it, and you saw that with their swings,” Busboom Kelly said. “Grabbing our pinkies, and [Ayro] was swinging away, obviously, every single time. I don’t know if maybe it was underestimating them or feeling like we could work into it a little bit, but I didn’t think the slow starts lasted very long, so it was good to see us bounce out of that and get everybody who is out there a lot of reps, and that was a big goal for us tonight.”
The Raiders will take on California early on Saturday on day two of the Ameritas Players Challenge. The Huskers will return to the court on Sunday to close out the tournament against the Golden Bears. First serve is set for 1 p.m. CT on Big Ten Network with Larry Punteney and John Cook on the call.
