No. 1 Nebraska volleyball closed out its eastern road trip with a quick sweep at Rutgers in front of another record crowd Saturday night.
The Cornhuskers (14-0, 4-0 Big Ten) took down the Scarlet Knights (10-6, 1-4) 25-17, 25-15, 25-16 in front of a capacity attendance of 8,000, the largest recorded crowd to ever watch a volleyball match in the state of New Jersey.
“What’s really amazing about Husker fans is not the ones who travel, per se — those fans are great — but when we go places like tonight, it felt almost like a home game, and it was really fun,” Coach Dani Busboom Kelly said on the Huskers Radio Network. “We were talking on the bench with the coaches, just every time we do something good, everybody freaked out, like ‘oh my god,’ because they’re so excited to see us and to be here. It just warms your heart and is just a really fun atmosphere.”
Busboom Kelly said she waved at a girl who then burst into tears of excitement, an example of the phenomenon the Husker volleyball team has become.
The play on the court was phenomenal as well as the Huskers hit .390 and held the Scarlet Knights to .061. Harper Murray led the Huskers with 11 kills on .333 hitting, four digs, three blocks and an ace.
Nine different Huskers took a swing and seven of them hit .400 or better as Busboom Kelly again turned to her bench to get her reserves extended playing time and rest some of her starters. Rebekah Allick and Taylor Landfair didn’t play while Bergen Reilly and Virginia Adriano subbed out for good midway through the second set, giving way to Campbell Flynn and Allie Sczech.
Freshman Manaia Ogbechie started in Allick’s placed and impressed with five kills on .500 hitting and eight blocks (one solo). She’s started three matches this season so far, averaging 2.56 kills per set on .538 hitting and 1.78 blocks per set.
“She’s fantastic,” Busboom Kelly said. “She’s so fast off the ground. She’s a great blocker. Every single time we’ve played her, she’s delivered … I think getting those middles a little rest now and again does not hurt, and getting Manaia moments in big games will eventually pay off.”
Andi Jackson added six kills, four digs, three blocks and two aces. Skyler Pierce played in the front row for Teraya Sigler in Landfair’s place, tying her season high with six kills on .417 hitting, also a season high for the redshirt freshman.
Laney Choboy got the start at libero and posted a team-high 10 digs. The Huskers matched the Big Ten’s aces leader with three for each team, though Nebraska did it with three fewer errors. Nebraska also recorded 14 blocks, the team’s highest total since the opener against Pittsburgh, a four-set match.
The teams traded shots early with five ties and a couple lead changes to open the match, but the Huskers took control with a 6-0 run featuring Reilly at the service line for an 11-5 lead. Rutgers briefly pulled within four at 15-11, but the Huskers answered with a 3-0 run including kills from Pierce and Jackson before cruising the rest of the way.
Nebraska hit .370 and held Rutgers to .062 with six Husker blocks contributing to that low number. Murray and Ogbechie led the way with three kills apiece, and the freshman middle was in on four of those blocks.
Nebraska opened the second set with a 3-0 run and led wire to wire, though the Huskers weren’t able to create more than three points of separation until midway through when Olivia Mauch served a 6-0 run to take a 17-10 lead.
That 6-0 spurt turned into a 13-3 run ending in an ace from Jackson to give Nebraska set point, and the Huskers closed it out on their second attempt with a big kill from Pierce.
Nebraska hit .273 and held Rutgers to minus-.091 with five more blocks. Flynn and Szcech replaced Reilly and Adriano midway through the set, and they remained in to start the third.
The Scarlet Knights put up a fight in the third, taking the lead a few times early then responding to a go-ahead 5-0 service run from Jackson with a 3-0 run of their own to pull within one.
However, the Huskers won nine of the next 11 rallies to build a 17-9 lead and traded points the rest of the way to close out the match. Murray delivered the match-point kill, one of seven in the set as the junior took over after a balanced first two sets. Nebraska out-hit Rutgers .500 to .219.
“Solid performance,” Busboom Kelly said. “I feel like that’s a lot harder to do than people realize, coming off a really late flight, late night, turn around and play the next day, get used to a completely new gym. So I thought all things considered, pretty satisfied that we played a lot of people and we didn’t miss a beat when people were in and out of the lineup.”
Week three of Big Ten play features a split for the Huskers who will host Washington on Friday before heading to Purdue for a matinee meeting on Sunday.
