Last season, Nebraska didn’t suffer its first loss until the final week of the regular season. The 2024 group had to face that adversity much sooner following Tuesday’s sweep at SMU and responded well, taking down The Citadel 3-0 in the Husker Invitational.
No. 2 Nebraska (4-1) swept the Bulldogs (2-2) 25-14, 25-16, 25-16 at the Devaney Center on Thursday.
“Personally, if you’re asking me, I can take losing if we get beat, but when we play like we did Tuesday night… Again, a lot of credit to SMU, but we didn’t fight very hard,” Coach John Cook said. “So I guess what I told them is, you can’t let a loss beat you twice. So we’ve got to learn from that and move forward and learn from that.”
In a battle of 2023’s last two unbeaten teams, Nebraska hit .367 while holding The Citadel to .122. Bergen Reilly saw her season-opening streak of double-doubles end at four but still put up 36 assists, seven digs, three aces, two blocks and two kills.
“We knew we didn’t play our game on Tuesday, and instead of using it to get us down and put our heads down because of it, we talked yesterday,” Reilly said. “We had some meetings, and we just are really using that, and we want to look back on SMU and say that was a turning point in our season.”
Reilly said she thought Thursday was Nebraska’s best performance of the season as far as abiding by the pillars of the program and playing the way they know they’re capable of.
“We just played Nebraska volleyball,” Reilly said. “Everybody did their job, and then they moved on to their next job. And I think in the last couple games, we’ve been kind of overstepping our bounds and trying to take other people’s jobs and I think when we all just focus on one thing at a time and then move on to our next job, we’re a really good team.”
Harper Murray led a balanced Nebraska attack with nine kills on .226 hitting and 10 digs. Three Huskers finished at seven kills: Andi Jackson (on .545 hitting), Leyla Blackwell (.600) and Merritt Beason (.250). Taylor Landfair added six kills on nine errorless swings in just 33 rallies on the court. Lexi Rodriguez led the defensive effort with 15 digs. Lindsay Krause started the match and produced four kills and two aces in less than two sets of work.
While Cook wasn’t pleased with Nebraska’s 11 service errors, the Huskers did manage to balance them out with six aces after struggling mightily from the line on Tuesday. They also did not surrender an ace to the Bulldogs after SMU notched seven of them against the Cornhuskers in Dallas.
The Huskers rolled in the first set between efficient offense and aggressive serving. They jumped out to a 6-1 lead including three aces and continued to extend the lead the rest of the way.
Nebraska went the entire set without an attack error, hitting .550 with terrific balance. The Huskers also served up five aces to offset their six service errors.
The second set followed a similar script as Nebraska raced out to a 6-1 lead again. The Huskers finally misfired on their 39th swing of the night but continued to control the action, hitting .314 in the set while holding the Bulldogs to .147.
Blackwell started the second set in place of Rebekah Allick while Landfair came on midway through for Krause, and the two transfers stayed in for the third set.
“I’m always thinking what we have to do to get better,” Cook said. “We did a couple different lineups tonight. This is what nonconference is for, we’re trying to figure that out, what’s our smoothest, most efficient system, and who plays where …
“I wanted to play Leyla and Taylor tonight, and so I was just looking for opportunities to get them in. Just how the match was going, and if we were in a good rhythm. It’s easier when we’re in a good rhythm; when we’re struggling and throw somebody in, it’s hard. I felt like we were in a great rhythm with that first group that started and then worked those guys in.”
The Citadel hung around early in set three, but Reilly served a 5-0 run to put the Huskers in front 10-6 and Nebraska pulled away from there. Blackwell put down the kill on the Huskers’ second match point to complete the sweep, capping a big night for the San Diego transfer.
“I am just so grateful to be a part of this group and get to compete in Devaney, and we have the best fan base in the country,” Blackwell said. “Getting to just experience that and hear the roar of Husker nation, it’s the best.”
The Huskers will get Friday off from competition before returning to the Devaney Center to face Montana State on Saturday at 2 p.m. CT. The Bobcats fell to Denver in five sets in the first game of the Husker Invitational on Thursday and will face The Citadel at 10 a.m. Friday.
Montana State features a pair of Nebraska natives in Diller-Odell grad Karli Heidemann and Omaha Westside alumna Madilyn Siebler. The duo combined for 31 kills and 21 digs to lead the Bobcats against Denver.
Nebraska Public Media will televise the match on Saturday afternoon.
