No. 2 Nebraska volleyball made short work of Iowa in Iowa City on Wednesday, sweeping the Hawkeyes behind one of the team’s best offensive performances in years.
The Huskers (27-0, 17-0 Big Ten) beat the Hawkeyes 25-9, 25-16, 25-17 while posting a .472 hitting percentage, the program’s best mark in a conference match since 2017.
“I thought we did a nice job of taking care of business,” Coach John Cook said on the Huskers Radio Network. “Iowa came out in a different lineup, different setter … I thought we adjusted really well and just took care of business. That’s the best way to say it. I thought our middles looked really good attacking tonight; that was fun to watch. That’s good for them, and those numbers they hit are pretty impressive.”
Big Ten Setter of the Week Bergen Reilly totaled 41 assists, eight digs, three blocks, three kills (one three attacks) and two aces. Six hitters totaled at least six kills for Nebraska and nobody took more than 19 swings as Reilly set a balanced attack.
Harper Murray led the way with 11 kills on .556 hitting, seven digs and an ace. Taylor Landfair (.263 hitting), Merritt Beason (.222) and Andi Jackson (.875) each notched seven kills and multiple blocks. Rebekah Allick added six kills on nine swings and five blocks as she and Landfair only played in the first two sets. Cook called Leyla Blackwell’s and Lindsay Krause’s numbers in their place for set three for the second straight match.
Lexi Rodriguez posted a match-high 11 digs as Nebraska out-dug the Hawkeyes (10-19, 4-13) by 18 and held them to .082 hitting. The Huskers also out-blocked Iowa 10 to one.
The one blemish on an otherwise stellar performance was the service line, where the Huskers surrendered five aces while only recording four of their own.
“This gym is hard to pass in, in my opinion,” Cook said. “The ball really moves. I thought we could have served a lot tougher than we did tonight, but they hit some really tough serves, and a couple those short serves — sometimes you get a lucky one that goes down at like the three-foot line. They had about five of them. It’s hard to prepare for those because it’s hard to serve that way … It’s a hard gym to pass in. Again, there’s ice underneath this, it’s a big arena, but they did a nice job serving us tonight. I’m not happy with that part of our game. Our goal is never to get aced.”
Nebraska used runs of 4-0 and 3-0 to build a 12-5 lead midway through the set then closed the frame on a 9-0 run featuring Reilly at the service line.
Reilly dished out 14 assists with Allick, Beason and Murray notching four apiece for the Huskers’ balanced attack. Nebraska hit .630 while holding the Hawkeyes to .000, finishing plus-11 in kills, plus-six in digs and plus-four in blocks.
The Huskers got off to a much slower start in set two, falling behind 4-1 out of the gates. Iowa took its largest lead of the night at 7-3 before the Huskers locked in, winning nine of the next 10 rallies to surge ahead. The run included six straight with Kennedi Orr serving.
The Huskers used a 3-0 spurt to extend the lead to six at 17-11 and continued to build on it the rest of the set. After a Landfair kill, Reilly capitalized on Nebraska’s first set-point opportunity with an ace.
She added 13 more assists to her tally as she continued to keep all her attackers involved. Landfair led the way with four kills in the set to pull even with Murray for the team lead. Nebraska hit .323 and held Iowa to .103.
Nebraska opened the third set with a 4-0 run as the two subs made an immediate impact. Blackwell and Krause both terminated on their first swings before Reilly served her second ace to get things started. Iowa trimmed the deficit to one a couple of times before a 5-0 run with Murray serving put Nebraska up 13-6.
The Huskers and Hawkeyes traded points for a bit, then Nebraska put together a 3-0 run to extend the lead to 20-11 before cruising to the finish.
Krause made the most of her opportunity, notching six kills (more than any Hawkeye totaled in the whole match) on eight errorless swings. Blackwell added three kills and two blocks. Nebraska hit .484 and held Iowa to .152.
“I though Lindsay came in and took some really good swings,” Cook said. “She looked very comfortable.”
Up next for the Huskers is senior night against No. 6 Wisconsin on Saturday night.
