No. 2 Nebraska threw a block party on Saturday night to celebrate winning a share of the Big Ten title. The Huskers beat Maryland 3-1 in front of a record crowd to finish 19-1 in Big Ten play.
The Cornhuskers (29-2) gave away the first set but dominated the last three for a 25-27, 25-14, 25-8, 25-12 victory to secure the team’s fifth conference title. Maryland moved the match to the XFINITY Center to accommodate the demand for tickets and packed in 13,071 fans, topping the previous program record by nearly 8,500.
“We were still a little punch-drunk from last night,” Coach John Cook said on the Huskers Radio Network. “This is also a really hard gym to play in. The balls were really moving, it was really hard to get a feel. Maryland came out and they’re so different than Penn State; they’re just chopping it around and throwing it around. So it just took us a while to dig in, but we did a great job. We held them to negative-.059.
“There’s a lot of pressure to get to this point and try to win it, but after the first game, I thought we settled down and played some good volleyball. Still a little high-error, but our block and defense and serving were really good.”
The Huskers recorded a season-high 20 blocks, matching the highest total for the program since 2006. Nebraska held Maryland to minus-.059 hitting, the lowest the Huskers have allowed to a Big Ten opponent since Iowa in 2022. Nebraska hit .259.
Merritt Beason bounced back from her rough outing against Penn State to drop a double-double with 19 kills on .471 hitting and a career-high 10 blocks.
“I sat down with Merritt after practice today,” Cook said. “We sat down here in the end zone on those black chairs, and I said, ‘Merritt, what are you going to do different tonight?’ She goes, ‘I’m going to be Merritt Beason.’ I go, ‘There you go.’ These guys want it, and sometimes when you want it so bad — I’m the same way — you press a little bit. I think she was pressing last night, never got into a rhythm, we stopped setting her. But for us to be successful, she’s got to be a big player for us, we’ve got set her a lot, and she responded great tonight.”
Bergen Reilly recorded her own double-double with 43 assists and 14 digs. Harper Murray added 12 kills and two aces. Middle blockers Rebekah Allick combined for 19 blocks and 13 kills. Lexi Rodriguez tied Reilly for match-high honors with 14 digs while Olivia Mauch served four aces while chipping in seven digs.
Maryland hung around early in set one until Nebraska created some separation for the first time with a 4-0 run for a 15-11 lead. The Terrapins rallied to tie it up a couple times before another 4-0 run including a Mauch ace put the Huskers back in front 21-17.
They couldn’t finish it off, however. After a clean start, errors began to pile up, and Maryland surged ahead 24-23. Nebraska saved two set points, but Jackson missed a serve and Taylor Landfair hit wide to give it to the Terrapins.
Nebraska hit .194 with nine errors in the set. Murray led the way with five kills, though she also misfired three times while Landfair hit negative with two kills and four errors. Beason played well with four kills on seven errorless swings. Maryland hit .214 and was plus-two in service points (one more ace, one less error).
The left sides continued to struggle in set two, but Beason picked up the slack. Nebraska used a 5-0 run early to take control and continued to extend the lead throughout. The Huskers blew the game wide open with an 8-0 run featuring Reilly at the service line, building a big enough cushion to survive more errors late without feeling much pressure.
Beason delivered the set-point kill, her eighth of the set. Everyone else combined for just seven kills as Nebraska hit .077 and Maryland minus-.135 with 10 errors. The Terrapins added four service errors as well.
Nebraska took control early in set three again as Mauch served three aces in a five-point span during a 6-0 Nebraska run. The Huskers extended the lead further with a 4-0 run including three blocks from Jackson. Nebraska’s block continued to cause problems for the Terrapins, and the Huskers settled in offensively too, turning the game into a blowout.
Nebraska ended on a 6-0 run capped by two more blocks, giving the Huskers as many stuffs as kills in the set with nine of each. Mauch served the closing run. Nebraska hit .318 and held Maryland to minus-.179.
Mauch served a 4-0 run to open set four as well, and Nebraska never looked back. The Huskers rolled throughout with the lead peaking at 22-8.
Nebraska hit .438 with 15 kills and just one error while holding Maryland negative for the third straight set at minus-.120. Beason and Murray combined for nine kills without an error in the fourth.
The Huskers are Big Ten champions for the second straight season, sharing the title with No. 4 Penn State after the Nittany Lions won the head-to-head matchup in University Park on Friday.
“Every year, ‘OK, what’s, what’s going to be the next challenge?’” Cook said. “Winning a national championship is always out there, but what’s the next one? And the new Big Ten, adding those PAC-12 schools, I thought this is a great challenge. Can we go and get this thing done? And so to me, personally, this was a challenge — the first year of this mega conference with all these great teams in it, and you’ve got to do this travel. We had to do it over 10 weeks, and we probably had as tough a schedule as anybody … We had it very difficult. We had to go to Penn State, we had to go to Wisconsin. I think we’re the only school that had to do that.
“Penn State got us, and they played a hell of a match last night, after going through the video. They played a great match. But to me, this was a great challenge for Nebraska volleyball, our staff, our team, and to win it, to almost go undefeated, was pretty dang good.”
BTN had a camera in the Nebraska locker room to capture the team’s celebration. #Huskers pic.twitter.com/eTlPun0S37
— Jacob Padilla (@JacobPadilla_) December 1, 2024
Nebraska will learn its NCAA Tournament fate on Sunday, with ESPN’s selection show scheduled to air at 5 p.m. CT. The Huskers have likely earned a top-four seed and a chance to host until the Final Four.
