A former Husker crashed Nebraska’s party on Friday night to give her team the opportunity to hoist the Big Ten trophy instead as No. 4 Penn State handed No. 2 Nebraska its first conference loss in four sets.
Caroline Jurevicius, an opposite hitter who redshirted at Nebraska last season, went off for a career- and match-high 18 kills on .414 hitting as the Nittany Lions downed the Huskers 25-21, 14-25, 25-22, 25-23 at Rec Hall.
“Congrats to Penn State,” Coach John Cook said on the Huskers Radio Network. “They played great tonight. It was a tough place to play with this crowd, and it was good for us to go through that. We’ve got to realize you’ve got to serve tough every serve and you can’t tip balls, and that’s the difference, and you’ve got to kill balls …
“We had to win long rallies, and we would just tip back to them or make an error, get blocked. I hope our players are a little disappointed in how they played tonight. They competed really hard, they competed hard, we just didn’t play great when we needed to.”
Maggie Mendelson, another former Husker in her first season with Penn State, added eight kills on .263 hitting and six blocks as Penn State finished 19-1 in Big Ten play and 29-2 overall to claim at least a share of the Big Ten title. Cook said Penn State coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley will likely be Big Ten Coach of the Year after what her team accomplished while she’s battling cancer.
“She’s done a heck of a job,” Cook said. “Of course, in some ways, they’ve got two Huskers over there, so it doesn’t hurt as much. I’m happy for those two. They’ve got their second Big Ten championship. But Penn State found a way to win tonight, and they did a great job.”
Harper Murray was Nebraska’s only effective pin, recording 13 kills on .216 hitting and 13 digs, though she struggled in serve receive. Merritt Beason, Taylor Landfair and Lindsay Krause combined for 13 kills and 15 errors.
Andi Jackson was Nebraska’s best weapon, finishing with 10 kills on .667 hitting and eight blocks. Rebekah Allick added eight kills on .263 hitting and seven blocks (two solo). Nebraska hit .154 as a team as Bergen Reilly finished with 28 assists, eight digs, four blocks and two kills.
“Even when we pressured them, they still found ways to make some plays, and we just had a hard time killing the ball tonight,” Cook said. “That’s pretty disappointing. When two of our pin hitters can’t kill balls, you’re in trouble. But I thought we our middles did great.”
Penn State hit .152 as Lexi Rodriguez led the Husker defensive effort with 16 digs. Laney Choboy added nine. Nebraska out-blocked the Nittany Lions 16 to 10.
An extended first rally set the tone for the match as the set saw six ties and four lead changes before the media timeout. Penn State made the first big push with a 5-1 run, but the Huskers responded with four straight of their own to tie it at 19-all.
Camryn Hannah ended the run with a kill, sparking four straight Nittany Lion points including two Nebraska attack errors to put Penn State in control. From there, the teams traded sideouts until Penn State took the set.
The former Huskers went off for 10 kills on 15 attacks to lead Penn State, who hit .208. Nebraska hit .205 with its middles combining for six kills on nine errorless swings. Penn State only recorded one ace but put significant pressure on the Huskers from the service line throughout.
Nebraska picked it up in the second set, using runs of 4-0 and 5-1 to open a 15-7 lead midway through the set. The Huskers extended their lead to 10 at 19-9 before a 3-0 Nittany Lion run, but Nebraska righted the ship and closed out the set, finishing on a 3-0 run.
Nebraska won the set going away despite recording just nine kills and hitting .200. The Huskers notched six more blocks and held the Nittany Lions to minus-.079 with 12 attack errors. Mendelson and Jurevicius combined for three kills and three errors after the hot first set.
The teams traded 3-0 runs to open the third set, then 10 straight sideouts followed before Penn State surged ahead for a 10-8 lead with back-to-back Taylor Trammell block assists. The Nittany Lions extended their lead to four and maintained a cushion the rest of the way.
The Huskers trimmed the lead to one at 21-20, but Jurevicius responded with a big kill out of a timeout as Penn State won four of the final six rallies, including an errant attack and a net serve from the Huskers.
The Huskers held Penn State to .122 hitting but only mustered .051 and 11 kills themselves. Jurevicius got hot again with six kills on eight swings. Jackson had five kills on five attacks for Nebraska.
After Landfair only managed one error and two swings in the third set, Cook went to Krause at the L1 spot for game four. Neither team managed to string together more than a few points early as the game saw 12 ties and three lead changes before the home team made its move. The Nittany Lions scored five straight kills on some big swings to take a 16-12 lead.
The Huskers kept battling, rallying to take a 19-18 lead with a 4-0 run, but Penn State responded with a kill and an ace off the tape. Nebraska tied it up twice before three straight attack errors (one from Allick, two from Krause) gave Penn State match point.
A kill from Krause and an attack error from Izzy Starck extended the match, but Hannah capped a big fourth set with her fifth kill to close it out. Penn State hit .351 and held Nebraska to .154 in the final frame.
The Huskers will have an opportunity to bounce back and claim their share of the Big Ten title on Saturday as they close out the regular season at Maryland on Saturday.
“It was quiet,” Cook said of the locker room after the loss. “But hey, you know what? We’re playing for Big Ten championship tomorrow. What I reminded them of was you just went through nine weeks of the Big Ten, the hardest conference in the country, the hardest Big Ten Conference ever. We only lost five sets up until tonight, so we’ve got a lot of good stuff we’re doing, and we’ve got to get back to doing that, and we’ve got 24 hours to do it.
“We’ve done an amazing job, and to go this far without getting beat, it’s tough … It’s hard to win in some of these gyms, but like I said, I thought our team competed really hard tonight, and we just didn’t execute very well, and didn’t take advantage of when we had opportunities.”
First serve at the XFINITY Center in College Park is set for 6 p.m. CT on Saturday on Big Ten Network.
