No. 1 Nebraska volleyball flexed its depth once again in another balanced sweep as the Huskers took down Ohio State Saturday night.
Nebraska’s five primary attackers each finished with six or seven kills as the Huskers (13-0, 2-0 Big Ten) swept the Buckeyes (8-4, 1-1) 25-19, 25-10, 25-12 at the Devaney Center. Nebraska hit .333 and held Ohio State to minus-.010.
Twelve plyers saw the court with nine of them recording at least one dig, eight of them tallying at least one block and seven of them notching at least one kill.
“We wanted to give different people confidence going into next weekend, so it was good that everybody contributed and everybody did well,” Coach Dani Busboom Kelly said.
Sophomore Teraya Sigler returned to the lineup — in the same defensive specialist role she filled as a freshman last year. The Arizona native missed Friday’s win over Rutgers with what her coach described as a foot injury but returned to the court in the back row on Saturday, recording four digs.
“We kind of knew she was probably OK if we really wanted to push it but decided not to last night,” Busboom Kelly said. “And then tonight, I thought it would be a good opportunity to get her some reps before Thursday … They didn’t serve her, so she didn’t do a whole lot, but she seemed fine and had some nice digs, and I thought she looked good.”
With Sigler only playing in the back row, junior Skyler Pierce handled the front-row rotations for the second straight match. Busboom Kelly said Pierce played well against the Scarlet Knights, but she would have liked to see more kills than the four she produced on her 21 swings. Pierce delivered what her coach asked for on Saturday with seven kills (on 15 attacks) to tie for the team lead, hitting .333 and adding two aces, tying her career high.
“I thought just a great adjustment,” Busboom Kelly said. “She played great and I thought she stayed super aggressive the whole match. I’m just super proud of her, and then she had some great service runs too, which were huge. When a player is feeling confident, usually they’re hitting their serve, so it’s a good indication.”
Manaia Ogbechie tallied seven kills on nine swings, hitting .667, while Virginia Adriano also finished with seven kills on a .357 clip. Andi Jackson and Harper Murray added six kills apiece while Bergen Reilly racked up 31 assists, five digs, four blocks and four kills on eight errorless attacks. Olivia Mauch posted a match-high 16 digs and was one of three Huskers with two aces.
First Set
An error-filled start to the match for Nebraska allowed the Buckeyes to build some momentum early. The first set saw 13 ties and four lead changes as Nebraska tallied six attack errors and two service errors before the media timeout, leading to a 15-13 Buckeye lead at the break.
“I just thought they were good swings, and we were barely missing,” Busboom Kelly said of the early errors. “Some of those off-the-net slides to Andi and Manaia, I thought the choice was great. It was probably out by a ball, and I knew those would start falling if we kept doing it. So the misses we had in game one were good misses, they weren’t tentative or silly errors.”
Bergen Reilly sets the ball against Ohio State. Photo by Christian Naujokaitis.
Busboom Kelly was right. Nebraska settled in out of the stoppage, using a 6-1 run including an ace from Mauch to take the lead for good. After trading a few sideouts, the Huskers then won five of the last six rallies as Pierce terminated on Nebraska’s first set-point opportunity after Friday’s struggles in that area.
“It’s great to have games like that, because I feel like it helps my confidence,” Pierce said. “Especially after the last two years having my redshirt and then having last year be another development year, I think it’s been really nice to have opportunities like that, and Dani’s been giving me those opportunities to kind of work through some things and grow my confidence …
“It feels pretty good just to know that the work I’ve been putting in is really paying off, and not just seeing it in practice, but now seeing it in games really builds your confidence for sure, and kind of instills that in myself some more.”
The Huskers did not record an attack or service error after the timeout as their hitting percentage climbed to .258 by the end. Ogbechie led the way with four kills on five swings.
Second Set
The back-and-forth play continued into the second set with a pair of ties and a lead change early. However, Nebraska surged ahead with a 4-0 run including a block assist and two kills from Pierce, then after trading sideouts, Busboom Kelly sent Campbell Flynn in as a serving sub — to great effect.
The sophomore proceeded to serve four more points, including back-to-back aces, to push the lead to 14-6.
“We’ve been waiting for moments to figure out when we can use her serve, and tonight, I think she proved that we need to find more moments,” Busboom Kelly said. “She was awesome, and she mixed up depths, she hit tough serves, just everything about her serving run was really impressive.”
After a few more sideouts, Nebraska put together a 7-0 run including two aces from Pierce, then Nebraska responded to back-to-back Buckeye points with a 3-0 finishing run, including a block from Adriano and Jackson on set point.
Nebraska won 20 of the last 25 rallies in the set, out-hitting Ohio State .320 to minus-.065 overall. The Huskers only needed 11 kills thanks to their five aces.
“We do a lot of serving in practice, so knowing that that’s paying off in practice, and that everyone’s going back there being confident in their serves is really cool to see,” Pierce said. “Going off of last season, we wanted to put a big emphasis on being great servers this year, so I think we’re doing a great job doing that.”
Third Set
The third set belonged to Nebraska from the first serve as the Huskers opened with a 5-1 run and never looked back. The Huskers expanded the lead to 10-2 with a 5-0 spurt and Busboom Kelly sent freshman Jayden Robinson in to finish the match for Pierce.
“I thought Jayden came in, did a great job knowing the game plan and being really disciplined on her block,” Busboom Kelly said. “I’ve been saying this all year: she’s one of our best blockers, so we’ve got to find ways to use it when we need it. Tonight was kind of a test, and she passed.”
Flynn and Kenna Cogill checked in as well with Nebraska leading 19-11 and Flynn proceeded to serve a 6-0 run to earn match point. After an Ohio State sideout, the Huskers sealed the sweep with their sixth block of the set.
Cogill tallied four block assists and Robinson added two in the third set.
“That was amazing, but it’s actually no surprise to me,” Ogbechie said. “The two of them are a force in practice.”
Nebraska hit .440 and held Ohio State to minus-.062. Nebraska tallied just five attack errors in the last two and a half sets combined after the six early miscues.
Up Next
Nebraska’s nine-match home stand has come to an end as the Huskers will hit the road for week two of Big Ten play. Pierce said the key to flipping the page to what’s next after settling in at home is to be intentional with everything they do in practice leading up to their departure.
“Just being focused on the scout or being intentional just with our team and working on what’s on our side of the court, because what we’re doing on our side of the court is going to help us win,” Pierce said. “So I think it’s just being really intentional going into this week and trying to fill our buckets as much as we can off the court too.”
The Huskers will visit No. 14 Penn State on Thursday before continuing on to face Maryland on Saturday, with both matches set for 6 p.m. CT starts.
