Injury, illness and incredible play from third-seeded Texas A&M combined Sunday afternoon to end the season for No. 1 Nebraska volleyball short of the Final Four.
The Aggies’ aggressive serving early, offensive balance and consistent block carried Texas A&M to its first Final Four with a 25-22, 25-22, 20-25, 35-37, 15-13 win at the Devaney Center. The Big Ten champion Huskers finished the season 33-1 in Coach Dani Busboom Kelly’s first season at the helm.
“Obviously, a really awesome game by Texas A&M, and they played like they had six seniors on the court,” Busboom Kelly said. “I’m proud of the way we fought back, and we played our hearts out and had a lot of things against us this week, and we still were that close. I’m just proud of the way we finished that match, and I’m super proud of our seniors.”
Busboom Kelly emphasized the importance of her team’s depth all season long, believing reserves would play an important role if Nebraska were to win a championship. However, that depth took a massive blow this week, with back-up setter Campbell Flynn breaking a pinky prior to the Sweet 16 and senior opposite hitter Allie Sczech suffering an ankle injury stepping on a ball in warmups that knocked her out for the match.
“That has a huge effect on our team,” Busboom Kelly said. “Those of you that have been with us the whole year, we’ve been great at using our depth and use it strategically, and we did not have that today. To have that happen, literally within the last five minutes of warmups, pretty tough.”
With no other viable option and the season on the line, Bergen Reilly also played through an illness to finish with 58 assists, 13 digs, five kills, three blocks and two aces, setting Nebraska to a .270 hitting percentage.
“She’s not feeling her best whatsoever, and it’s hard to go into the locker room and see her feeling that way, because she’s such a big part of our team, and I don’t know how she did it, but she found a way to still make good decisions and get balls up on defense and set us,” Harper Murray said. “That’s not easy, it’s really not, and she’s the best setter I’ve ever played with and will probably ever play with. The fact that she could go out there feeling as sick as she does and still work her butt off and play like that is truly amazing, and I love her to death.”
While Busboom Kelly didn’t have the double-sub available, she still turned to her bench in a bold and perhaps surprising move. Andi Jackson, who was on pace to shatter the school record for single-season hitting percentage, struggled mightily throughout the match. Busboom Kelly pulled her in the first, second and fourth sets, though Jackson returned to the lineup after the first two stints on the bench. After the third sub, Busboom Kelly stuck with freshman Manaia Ogbechie the rest of the match.
Jackson finished with six kills and five errors, hitting a season-low .045. She uncharacteristically missed wide on multiple slides, and whether it be shaken confidence, a struggling connection with Reilly or the A&M block getting in her head, it seemed like she grew less aggressive as the match went on.
“Nothing was going right for her, so thought, ‘OK, let’s give Manaia a try, and she made a few plays, so we left her in there,” Busboom Kelly said.
The freshman contributed five kills on .250 hitting and three blocks.
In her final match at the Devaney Center, Lincoln native Rebekah Allick went down swinging, finishing with 15 kills on .480 hitting, four blocks and four digs. She played a significant part in Nebraska winning the marathon fourth set and put down some big kills in the fifth to keep the Huskers afloat. Her career ends without hanging a national championship banner for the program she’s been a part of since she committed prior to her freshman year of high school, but she capped a final season of tremendous growth with some of her finest volleyball.
Rebekah Allick celebrates a point in her final match at the Devaney Center. Photo by John S. Peterson.
“Bekka has put her heart and soul into this program, and you can tell by her face how much she cares,” said Murray, stepping in during the post-match press conference when the emotions welled up for Allick. “I don’t even care if we win or we lose; what I tried to tell Bekka in the locker room is that she’s going to take away the memories and the relationships that we’ve made. Winning and losing, it’s a part of volleyball, and it sucks, but she put her heart and soul into this program for four years, and she’s leaving behind a great legacy, and has so much to be proud of. We all see how much she cares”
Murray went toe to toe with A&M’s prolific pins, tying Kyndal Stowers for match-high honors with 25 kills on .255 hitting while adding nine digs, three aces and two blocks. Virginia Adriano added eight kills and three blocks but only took 12 swings. Olivia Mauch matched Reilly for team-high honors with 13 digs and didn’t allow an ace on the 20 balls served her way. Laney Choboy added 10 digs and recorded 45 reception attempts while giving up five aces.
A&M served nine aces, including eight in the first two sets, as the Aggies put the Huskers in the 0-2 hole. They more than doubled up the Huskers in blocks, 17-8. Nebraska was slow to the pin defensively for much of the match, with right side Logan Lednicky and left sides Stowers and Emily Hellmuth combining for 149 of A&M’s 178 attacks and 62 of its 75 kills. The Aggies hit .275, the highest of any opponent against Nebraska this season.
“Honestly, I just feel like they move the ball really well,” Allick said. “They have a pretty well-balanced offense. They can fire on all cylinders, and they did that. I think as a middle, it makes it harder to close. If we were one step off, they found that space, and they just crushed it. They were relentless in what they saw.”
Nebraska couldn’t have asked for a better start to the match, terminating on seven of its first eight swings with a block and an ace to race out to a 10-3 lead. That included one of the highlights of the postseason with Teraya Sigler toppling over the bench chairs after making a save on a point the Huskers eventually won.
However, the Aggies weathered the storm, completely turning the tables with a 10-0 run. A&M middle blocker Ifenna Cos-Akpalla served rockets, including a pair of aces, and Nebraska couldn’t find any openings in the Aggie defense.
“I think it started with our serving and passing … Their middle, she has a great serve, and she caught us on that for that run,” Murray said. “I think we worked all season on being first to five, first to 10, first to 15 and so on, and we weren’t able to do that with her serve. Credit to her.”
After a pair of errant attacks from Jackson and having burned both timeouts already, Busboom Kelly turned to the bench and Ogbechie. Reilly went to the freshman on the slide right away and she found the floor, sparking a 5-1 run including another Ogbechie kill to pull Nebraska within one at 21-20.
“She’s mature,” Allick said of the freshman. “I think she’s very mature for her age and as a competitor, and she listens well. We told her just to hit everything, and she did that. I think it’s a testament to her maturity.”
However, the Huskers couldn’t hold serve, trading sideouts until Maddie Waak dropped an ace on set point to seal it.
Nebraska out-hit Texas A&M .355 to .297 but kills and errors were identical. Aces were the difference, 4-1 in A&M’s favor. Allick had 4 kills on four swings, but Stowers went 6-for-7.
Nebraska’s struggles continued into the second set. The teams traded runs early, but A&M surged ahead midway through with a 4-0 run including two more aces from Waak. The Aggie block came alive and Nebraska couldn’t find an answer. Busboom Kelly subbed Ogbechie in for Jackson again at 19-15, but the Aggies held on.
A&M out-hit Nebraska .286 to .211, out-blocked the Huskers six to zero and doubled them in aces, four to two. Murray recorded six kills on 10 swings, but the rest of the Huskers only managed nine kills on .107 hitting.
Nebraska threw the first punch in set three, using a 5-1 run to build a 10-5 lead. The Aggies fired back, pulling within one four times, but Nebraska answered every push. The Huskers won seven of the last 10 rallies to extend the match.
Nebraska out-hit A&M .462 to .312 and limited the Aggies to one ace while benefitting from three errors. Murray terminated on six of her eight swings, including the final point.
The teams went back and forth early in set four, but four straight Nebraska errors allowed the Aggies to pull ahead 11-7, and three straight Lednicky kills extended the advantage to 16-10. Ogbechie checked in again with the Huskers down 18-11 and teamed up with Reilly for a block, sparking a 3-0 run. Reilly served a 5-0 run after that to tie it up at 19-all — which only proved to be the halfway point of the set.
Sixteen more ties and five more lead changes followed. Texas A&M saved nine set points and Nebraska saved three match points, leading to a 35-all score. Murray gave Nebraska’s a 10th chanced to end it with a kill, and that’s what Adriano did, drawing a touch call off the block.
“I think that set showed that we weren’t going to just let them take it from us on our home court and in our gym,” Murray said. “It obviously didn’t turn out the way we wanted, but I think we showed a lot of fight, and that’s something to be proud of.”
The set saw 43 kills — including eight apiece for Murray and Lednicky — as Nebraska hit .250 and A&M .226. Both teams ran out of subs in the set, and Nebraska played through the grueling finish without any timeouts or challenges.
The Cornhuskers show their appreciation to the fans at the Devaney Center following their season-ending five-set loss to Texas A&M. Photo by John S. Peterson.
“Honestly, I had a lot of confidence that we were going to win that,” Busboom Kelly said. “We train all the time, everybody to do everything. I had a lot of trust Virginia could go back there and hit a serve, and it’s Teraya in the front row, and it wasn’t like a panic moment when we ran out of subs. It was like, ‘well, this crew is good enough to win this set,’ and I kept telling myself that, and it was pretty great to see us make it two times through with no subs. I thought they were just really confident, even though they hadn’t done that all year.”
In the fifth set, the teams battled to a draw through the first 10 rallies, but Nebraska never found a way to get its offense clicking and the Aggies gradually began to pull away, winning seven of the next nine rallies to build a 12-7 edge.
Nebraska made one more push, pulling within one at 13-12 with a 5-1 run including two kills from Allick and an ace from Choboy, but two kills from A&M’s star, Lednicky, sandwiched a Murray kill to end the match and Nebraska’s season.
Nebraska only managed six kills on a .050 hitting percentage in the final game. A&M hit .286 with 10 kills, including four from Stowers and three from Lednicky.
Lednicky earned Regional Most Outstanding Player honors, headlining an all-tournament team also including Waak, Stowers, A&M libero Ava Underwood, Louisville outside hitter Chloe Chicoine, Murray and Allick.
The Aggies punched their ticket to Kansas City, where they will face 1-seed Pittsburgh in the national semifinals.
