No. 2 Nebraska volleyball has completed 80% of its Big Ten schedule without a blemish after sweeping Indiana on Saturday night.
The Huskers (26-1, 16-0 Big Ten) have only dropped five sets through eight weeks of conference play. Nebraska beat the Hoosiers 25-12, 25-17, 25-19 during throwback night at the Devaney Center featuring alternate jerseys and scoreboard graphics.
After digging a career-high 20 balls against No. 16 Minnesota on Thursday, setter Bergen Reilly only tallied seven digs against the Hoosiers as libero Lexi Rodriguez racked up 15 of them, five per set. That allowed Reilly to stay in a rhythm and spread the ball around to all her attackers as she put up 35 assists, three blocks and two kills.
“Everything that went her way she did a great job digging,” Coach John Cook said of Reilly. “They just didn’t hit as many balls at her. A lot of balls were going at Lexi; she played phenomenal D tonight.”
Nebraska hit .324 overall. Harper Murray led the way with 10 kills on 30 attacks, hitting .233. Five other Huskers had double-digit opportunities to take swings. Merritt Beason and Andi Jackson weren’t far behind Murray with eight kills apiece, with Jackson hitting .636.
The Huskers got eight kills combined from the L1 spot — five from Taylor Landfair in the first two sets and three from Lindsay Krause in the third — while Rebekah Allick added five kills on .455 hitting and five blocks in two sets of work.
“Our middles hit great tonight, and Lindsay and Taylor were, if you combine their stats, they were eight-for-17, no errors,” Cook said. “They did a nice job. I thought we did some good things tonight.”
Defensively, Nebraska held Indiana to .056 hitting, with the players crediting a good game plan.
“First, it started with our coaching,” Rodriguez said. “I think they did a great scout and were able to give us information that let our blockers get in great spots, take their tendencies, and then our defense was able to just set up around that. I feel like it worked really smooth. We were able to make adjustments when we needed to. But it was a team effort, for sure.”
The first set was tight early with Indiana briefly taking a lead at 6-5. However, the Huskers earned the sideout with a Hoosier error and Kennedi Orr checked in to serve, sparking a 12-0 run for the Huskers to turn the game into a rout.
“That was good,” Cook said of Orr’s run. “She played great D. It’s hard to serve that many points in a row without missing. So that was great. It really helped us blow that game open. She made some great digs too. So she can be a difference-maker for us.”
The Huskers led by as much as 14 before Murray terminated on Nebraska’s third set-point opportunity.
Nebraska hit .294 behind Landfair’s four kills on seven errorless swings. The Hoosiers gave the Huskers nearly half their points with nine attack errors, two service errors and a ball-handling error, hitting minus-.091.
“It just felt really smooth, and we’ve just been working a lot on finding our groove, finding our system as a team, regardless of who’s in,” Allick said. “I just feel like that was very well displayed tonight, especially in that 12-point run. Humming, that’s a great way to put it.”
The Huskers made their run early in set two again, building a 10-5 lead after a Murray serve caught the tape and dropped for an ace. However, the Hoosier block came alive during a 5-0 run that tied it up at 12-all.
The Huskers responded with four straight kills — including three by Beason after an error-filled start to the set — to take control, and Nebraska cruised through the second half of the set. Allick closed it out with a kill on the slide.
Nebraska hit .289 and held Indiana to .125 as the Huskers recorded 37 digs in the first two sets.
Cook changed the lineup up for the third set with Leyla Blackwell replacing Allick and Krause checking in for Landfair. Game three saw a handful of ties early, but Beason served a 5-0 run to give the Huskers a 10-5 lead and Nebraska rolled from there. The Huskers led by as much as eight before Indiana trimmed it to four late, but the Huskers won three of the last four rallies to complete the sweep.
Nebraska hit .394 in the set and held Indiana to .118. Blackwell led the team in swings with 10 while matching Murray’s game-high four kills.
“I thought in game one, we were all over them,” Cook said. “I thought we played really good defense tonight and really pressured them … They’re going 5-1, 6-2, Camryn [Haworth] is hitting in the front row, hitting as a setter, then they set her as a hitter. They were playing players that I don’t even know if they were on our scouting report. I just thought we did a really nice job just staying with it, and the key was really shutting their left sides down.”
Candela Alonso-Corcellos and Mady Saris, the starting outside hitters for Indiana, both hit negative, combining for 10 kills and 16 errors.
Nebraska volleyball will get Sunday off before gearing up for a mid-week road trip to Iowa City. The Huskers will take on Iowa (10-17, 4-11) on Wednesday night at 6 p.m. CT on Big Ten Plus.
