For the first time in a decade, No. 2 Nebraska fell 3-0 to an unranked team as the SMU Mustangs outplayed the Huskers in every phase Tuesday night.
The Mustangs, who split their season-opening matches in Hawaii over the weekend, took down Nebraska 25-23, 25-21, 25-18 in front of a program record crowd at Moody Coliseum in Dallas.
“SMU played a great match tonight,” Coach John Cook said during his post-match interview on the Huskers Radio Network. “Everything went their way. We got punched in the mouth and we let them keep punching us. So I’m pretty disappointed in how we responded tonight. But to be honest, this was all starting Saturday night. We talked about frustration, and they didn’t fix it tonight. We had a great practice on Monday but, man, we did not compete tonight. That was pretty disappointing.”
The Huskers’ struggles began at the service line where they mustered just one ace — by Andi Jackson, the first of her career — while misfiring 11 times. SMU had 10 errors as well, but they came with seven aces and some tough serves that kept Nebraska out of system much of the night. This comes after passing played a key role in Nebraska’s 3-1 win over TCU on Saturday as the Huskers didn’t surrender an ace in that match.
“You know serving is just you and the ball, so we work on it,” Cook said. “We’ve been serving great. We’ve been serving great up ‘til tonight. Not only did we serve cupcakes, but we also missed a bunch of them, and we weren’t hitting our zones we were supposed to hit. I’m going to be honest with you, that started with Merritt [Beason], started with Lexi [Rodriguez]. Those guys missed serves early on and when your two first-team All-Americans are making mistakes like that, what do you think it does to everybody else? So those guys have got to step up and lead the way.”
Beason had two service errors and one serve receive error. Rodriguez, arguably the best passer in the country, had one service error and two reception errors.
Lindsay Krause was Nebraska’s most effective pin, hitting .250 with five kills, and she didn’t even start the match as Cook gave Taylor Landfair her first start as a Husker. However, after two kills and two errors on seven attempts for the Minnesota transfer in the first set, Cook went back to Krause in game two. Merritt Beason got off to a fast start before the errors piled up, finishing with nine kills on .107 hitting. Harper Murray managed just six kills on .045 hitting.
Andi Jackson was the lone Husker attacker to have a good night, finishing with eight kills on 12 errorless swings, but the Huskers went the entire second set without giving the middles a chance to attack.
Bergen Reilly notched her fourth straight double-double with 31 assists and 11 digs, but the Huskers hit a season-low .171 while allowing a season-high .242 to the Mustangs.
“Very uncharacteristic,” Cook said. “We’re hitting .200 now, probably, on the year, and it’s disappointing. They’re going to have to step up. Part of it is, I just think we think we’re Nebraska, we’re going to roll out here and smoke teams. And this team played very inspired tonight. They played great. They won all the long rallies, let’s put it that way. So that’s attitude and effort right there.”
The first set featured 12 ties and six lead changes in the first 24 rallies before Nebraska created a bit of separation with a 4-0 run. The Huskers pushed the lead to five before SMU countered with a 6-0 run to take the lead then closed it out from there.
The Mustangs won nine of the last 12 rallies, with five of those points a result of Nebraska errors (four attack, one service).
“We were just not in sync, and we were not communicating to the setter so we’re in rhythm,” Cook said. “We tipped way too many balls. I’m over there telling them, ‘Guys, you’ve got to hit the ball.’ I don’t know. Like I said, we had a great practice last night, so I felt really good about coming in tonight. But we should have won the first game. We gave SMU a lot of hope.”
After a tight first set, the Huskers played from behind the entire second set and never found a way to get over the hump. Trailing 20-19 late, Nebraska missed a serve then missed an attack to give the Mustangs too much of a cushion to overcome.
The third set saw 12 ties and three lead changes, but once again SMU hit Nebraska with a big run and the Huskers didn’t have an answer. Leading 14-13, Nebraska missed another serve, triggering an 11-2 run to give the Mustangs match point. The Huskers extended the match for a couple more rallies before Naya Shime’s ninth kill ended it for the Mustangs.
Nebraska will only have one day to dwell on the loss and look for answers before returning to the court at the Devaney Center on Thursday for the start of the Husker Invitational. Nebraska will face The Citadel at 6 p.m. CT, or 30 minutes after the completion of the match between other tournament participants Denver and Montana State.
