No. 2 Nebraska volleyball made short work of Northwestern on Sunday, sweeping the Wildcats in front of a program-record crowd.
The Huskers (22-1, 12-0 Big Ten) beat the Wildcats (4-16, 2-10) 25-18, 25-15, 25-15 in front of an announced attendance of 6,003, bettering the previous record at Welsh-Ryan Arena by more than 1,100 people.
“This was a tough turnaround for us, 12 o’clock match, but that Northwestern team plays really hard,” Cook said on the Huskers Radio Network. “You’ve got to give them some credit. Alexa Rousseau is a great player.”
Nebraska hit .287 despite getting minimal production from the left pins. Merritt Beason picked up where she left off Friday, leading the Huskers with nine kills on 14 errorless swings (.643).
“She had a good week … She had some big kills, and we needed them,” Cook said. “She stepped up, and we need our seniors stepping up right now.”
After seeing her efficiency dip against heavy attention from the Badgers, Andi Jackson was back to her normally efficient self with eight kills on .545 hitting. Harper Murray, Taylor Landfair and Lindsay Krause combined for 11 kills and seven errors on 45 attacks (.089 hitting) but Bergen Reilly picked up the slack herself with four kills on eight attacks to go with her 25 assists and team-leading nine digs.
Lexi Rodriguez finished with seven digs, moving into a tie for second on Nebraska’s career digs list with Kayla Banwarth. She’s 184 digs behind Justine Wong-Orantes in first place.
Nebraska served up seven aces including three from Murray and only misfired five times. The Huskers out-blocked the Wildcats seven to two and held them to .082 hitting. Despite the dominant result, Cook wasn’t pleased with his team’s offensive aggressiveness.
“I kept telling them, ‘Guys, they’re in a rotation defense, and we’re tipping, we’re giving free balls’ … You throw it deep down the line, you’d go roll shot into the donut a little deeper, or just throw it high at their head, and you’ll get them out of system,” Cook said. “But we were tipping pretty good sets. The problem was, unless the set was perfect, we were just tipping it over, and we gave so many free balls today. We should never give a free ball. We should always be putting the ball up there so we can take a swing, and today, I don’t know.”
The Huskers set the tone early with a 6-1 start including an ace from Olivia Mauch. Nebraska extended the lead to 14-7 with a clean start to the match before the Wildcats began to battle back, winning five of the next six rallies to trim the lead to three.
The Huskers used a timeout to regroup, however, and responded with a 6-1 run to stretch the lead to eight before cruising to the finish. Beason delivered the set-point kill, her fifth on seven errorless attempts. Nebraska hit .306 and held Northwestern to .200.
Northwestern took an early lead in set two, but the Huskers settled in and used a 5-1 run including an ace from Murray to take a 9-5 lead. The Wildcats trimmed the deficit to one at 10-9, but the Huskers won 11 of the next 15 rallies to blow the game open. Maisie Boesiger checked in and served a 3-0 run to give the Huskers set point, then Reilly called her own number to close it out.
Nebraska ‘s defense led the way, holding Northwestern to minus-.036 hitting. The Huskers had three blocks after managing just one in the first set and served up three more aces. Nebraska hit .259.
The Huskers wasted no time in the third, jumping out to a 4-1 lead then using a 5-0 run featuring Murray at the service line to extend the advantage to eight at 13-5. Northwestern briefly cut the deficit to five with a 3-0 run, but Cook let the team play through it and the Huskers righted the ship on their own, closing the match on an 8-3 run.
Nebraska hit .290 and held Northwestern to .059. Cook made some changes in the third set with Leyla Blackwell starting for Rebekah Allick and Krause subbing in for Taylor Landfair, and the two reserves chipped in three kills off the bench.
The Huskers will look to extend their winning streak to 20 when they head west for a pacific road trip, starting with a visit to No. 10 Oregon on Thursday.
