No. 2 Nebraska made a triumphant return to the Devaney Center on Friday with a 3-1 win over Michigan State featuring the best performance of Andi Jackson’s young career.
The Huskers played their first home match in 19 days, taking down the Spartans 25-12, 25-19, 22-25, 25-15 in front of nearly 8,600 fans.
“It was really nice to be back in Bob,” Jackson said. “I definitely think that our team was super fired up to be back. Obviously four games on the road, it gets tough. You miss the energy and the excitement in the Bob and just playing in your own gym. I know that these past couple games, it felt like there was a lack of energy, especially for our team. And so being back here, it’s really easy to create energy and it’s just an amazing atmosphere, good to play in.”
Jackson led Nebraska (16-0, 7-0 Big Ten) with a season-high 13 kills on .593 hitting and six blocks, snapping a streak of three straight matches hitting under .200.
“I talked to Bergen a lot and I just got with her,” Jackson said. “Obviously, our connection hasn’t been the best lately and we knew it wasn’t the end of the world. It’s going to happen. It’s mid-season, people are getting tired, we’re playing back to back games on the road. So I just got with her and I was like, ‘Hey, we’re going to get in the gym, we’re going to work on this.’ Obviously, I had my teammates supporting me the entire time and just a huge shout-out to Bergen. She worked with me a lot and she kept feeding me the ball tonight and I think we really saw that connection come back.”
Merritt Beason matched Jackson with 13 kills on .423 hitting, eight digs and three blocks as Nebraska hit .302. Bergen Reilly recorded her fifth double-double of the season with 38 assists, a season-high 16 digs, three kills and three blocks. Lexi Rodriguez matched Reilly with 16 digs and added seven assists.
Coach John Cook made liberal use of his bench as multiple starters went through rough patches. Hayden Kubik subbed for Harper Murray in the second and third sets and terminated on both of her swings. Ally Batenhorst replaced Lindsay Krause in the third set and notched five kills on .455 hitting in games three and four. Cook gave Maggie Mendelson her third start of the season at middle blocker then turned to Bekka Allick after the second set, which he said was the plan going in.
“These game-changers, they’re ready to go and your margin for performance is small,” Cook said. “If you’re not getting it done, there’s somebody else who can come in and get it done. They did a great job — Hayden, Ally, Kennedi [Orr] all did a great job tonight coming in.”
The home court advantage seemed to alleviate Nebraska’s recent tendency to start slow as the Huskers scored the first six points of the match including four kills and a block. Nebraska used a 4-0 run to extend the lead to 10 at 14-4 as the Spartans struggled mightily to pass the ball. A 3-0 run featuring an Orr ace extended the lead to 12 and the Huskers continued to control the action the rest of the way.
The Huskers hit .393 behind Krause’s four kills on six errorless swings and held the Spartans to .030. Nebraska had just one service error and kept Michigan State out of system most of the game.
After a clean first set, the service errors popped up again for Nebraska and the Spartans made it much more competitive game. After five ties, Michigan State took its first lead of the night at 12-11. With Murray struggling (two attack errors, two service errors and a reception error), Cook called Kubik’s number.
Nebraska responded by winning seven of the next eight rallies and maintained the lead the rest of the way. Kubik recorded her first kill of the season during the run, and Krause terminated on Nebraska’s first set-point opportunity.
The Huskers hit .414 behind Beason’s six kills on seven swings and held Michigan State to .059. Nebraska served six errors and just one ace, allowing the Spartans to hang around.
The Huskers seemed to lose their flow during the intermission as the Spartans scored six of the first seven points of set three. The Cornhuskers had five attack errors during the slow start, matching their total from the first two sets combined.
Krause served a 4-0 run to cut the deficit down to one at 8-7, but the Huskers couldn’t get over the hump as attack errors continued pile up. Batenhorst replaced Krause and Kubik replaced Murray again during the set as the starters combine for seven errors.
Nebraska made a late rally, using a 5-1 run to cut the deficit down to one again at 23-22, but kills by Aliyah Moore and Evie Doezema closed it out for the Spartans.
After hitting in the negative most of the set, Nebraska finished at .000. Michigan State only hit .140 but had five fewer attack errors (seven to 12).
“Any good team you play is going to come out of the second third match locker room talk and they’re going to make changes and I think right now, the big thing for our team is we have to make changes when they make changes too and we have to adapt to their changes,” Beason said. “We’re kind of trying to figure out what that looks like as a team, but a lot of credit to them. They scouted us left and right, they knew what we wanted to hit, those things. They played a very good defensive match and I think for us right now, it’s kind of just figuring out our groove and how we’re going to better adapt to those changes.”
After five ties to open the fourth set, Nebraska took over and pulled away with a 10–2 run featuring two kills and two blocks from Allick that put the Huskers up 17-9, and they cruised to the finish from there. Allick put the finishing touches on the win with another kill on match point.
Nebraska hit .593 with just one error and held Michigan State to .167. Reilly spread the ball around as Allick, Jackson and Murray led the way with four kills apiece.
“We just went back and focused on us and being who we are,” Beason said. “At the end of the day, if we play our game and we play Nebraska volleyball, no one’s going to stop us and we’re going to plow through whoever is put in front of us. I think that’s kind of what the mentality that we like to have is is whoever’s on the other side of the net, we’re not going to worry about it, we’re going to be us, we’re going to play like us and we’re going to find a way to win no matter who it is. So I think that’s what you saw in the last set.”
On Saturday, two of the three remaining unbeatens in the Big Ten will face off as No. 13 Penn Sate (13-3, 7-0 Big Ten) visits the Devaney Center after a sweep at Iowa on Friday. First serve on Big Ten Network is set for 7 p.m. CT.
“I know what we can do,” Cook said. “We’ve got to go out and perform now. I think they’ll be fired up to play Penn State. It’s always a great match, they’re very talented, a great team, but we’ve got to come out and attack tomorrow night. That’s going to be the theme tomorrow.”
