No. 1 Nebraska ratcheted up its serving pressure to take down No. 22 Utah in four sets on Friday night.
The Cornhuskers (7-0) dropped the first set but dominated the last three to beat the Utes 21-25, 25-8, 25-18, 25-13 during the Husker Invitational at the Devaney Center.
“We didn’t serve it tough enough [in the first set], and they’re a great team when they’re in system, especially,” Bergen Reilly said. “When they had all their options, they were tough to stop. So once we kind of picked up our serving, then the game really changed, and we kind of were in control after that.”
Reilly set Nebraska to a .303 hitting percentage, the fifth match already this season north of .300. She posted a match-high 18 digs to go with her 32 assists, three blocks and two kills.
The Huskers’ service pressure allowed their defense to control the action in the final three sets. Nebraska held Utah to .063 hitting overall, including two sets in the negative.
“They’re a great team,” Reilly said. “They have a lot of great hitters. Props to our scout; we had a good scout on them, and we kind of knew it was coming. But at the end of the day, it really was we won that game with our serving, and we went on a lot of really great runs where they weren’t in system one time.”
Rebekah Allick had a career night for Nebraska, matching her career high with a match-high 13 kills on .667 hitting and seven blocks, including two solo.
“She was just working really hard to get up,” Reilly said. “It’s tough to stop when all of your hitters are on. I don’t know, 15 out of 20 kills [in the second set], every single hitter has to be on for that to be working, and so props to Allie [Sczech], props to Harper [Murray], props to all of the hitters for opening up the net, and then Bekka was just up everywhere, and a lot of those were overpasses. We talk a lot about killing the overpass, and she did a great job of that tonight, too.”
Allick also played a big part in limiting Utah’s star outside hitter Kamry Gibadlo to .103 hitting overall. She finished with 11 kills, but only four of them came in the final three sets, along with six errors. During prep, Sczech shared some insight on Gibadlo and the Utes after playing against them last year while she was at Baylor.
“They’re really good team,” Sczech said. “They have a lot of the same players, at least, I know No. 18; we played each other, obviously, last year. We knew she’d be a big key point tonight, and so I thought we did a really good job of kind of coming in and making sure that we knew everyone backwards and forwards. I think that says a lot about the things that we’re doing off the court, too.”
Andi Jackson finished with nine kills on .375 hitting and five blocks. Murray matched her with nine kills while adding seven digs and three blocks. Sczech chipped in six kills on .286 hitting and three blocks off the bench.
Taylor Landfair matched her season high with eight kills on .467 hitting and two aces.
“She’s a big part of our team and she has a lot of experience,” Reilly said of the senior. “We’re a little bit on the younger side this year, so she’s a big key point for us, and it’s great when she’s on. Her serving tonight was great, too, so I was happy for her for that.”
A net serve on the opening point and a 4-1 Utah start set the tone for set one as the Huskers played from behind most of the way. They tied it up briefly at 7-7 and 8-8 before a 7-2 Utah run opened it up again.
Utah stretched the lead to eight at 21-13 as the Huskers continued to struggle offensively. Busboom Kelly made a change at opposite hitter at that point, subbing Sczech in for Virginia Adriano. The team responded with a 6-1 run including an ace from Landfair, trimming the deficit to three, but that’s as close as the Huskers got.
Gibadlo went off for seven kills on .353 hitting to lead the Utes, who hit .278 as a team with only two attack errors. Nebraska totaled 10 kills as a team, hitting .133 with six errors. The Huskers surrendered three aces, though Utah also misfired seven times from the line.
“I think Utah’s a really good team,” Coach Dani Busboom Kelly said. “They serve really well. They’re going to bring the fight to you, and I thought we just started slow, and then they started getting a lot of momentum, and it was hard to catch up. We started playing better at the end of game one, and it was too late, but it was good to see that carry over, and us start super strong in game two.”
Rebekah Allick (5) blocks a spike from Utah’s Kamryn Gibadlo (18). Photo by John S. Peterson.
Busboom Kelly changed Nebraska’s starting rotation to match Allick up with Gibadlo, and it paid dividends the rest of the match. Sczech also remained in the lineup to start set two, terminating twice in a 3-0 start, and the Huskers cruised the rest of the way in the most lopsided set of the young season. The Huskers put together two 7-0 runs (one with Jackson serving and the other with Landfair serving to close out the set).
“[Jackson’s] got one of the toughest serves on the team, so when she starts hitting it and gets on a roll, it’s great for us,” Busboom Kelly said. “Taylor Landfair had an amazing serving night, and we’ve kind of unlocked a couple things with her serve in practice, so it’s been awesome to see her apply that in the first game out.”
After misfiring six times in the set one, the Huskers hit .750 in game two without an error. They also held Utah to minus-.080 and limited Gibadlo to zero kills and two errors on five swings. Allick led Nebraska with four kills on five attacks.
“I think Bergen gets us one-on-one a lot, and I think that says a lot about her and what she’s trained in the off season, and then also in the gym, just every day at practice,” Sczech said. “I think that’s kind of what runs our offense, and I think she’s like the quarterback of our team.”
Busboom Kelly gave Olivia Mauch the libero jersey for set three, bumping Laney Choboy to defensive specialist.
“Their serving was so good,” Busboom Kelly said of the change. “We were trying to give them different looks. That’s another part of the reason why we started in a different rotation, just to get their best server off one of our toughest passing rotations. So a little bit strategic, and what’s great is they’re both so good, and now we’re getting comfortable with that, so we can make those changes mid-game and not miss a beat and usually get a little bit better.”
The Huskers continued their strong play in game three, using an 8-2 run to open a 19-10 lead. Utah picked it up defensively, blocking the Huskers twice during a 6-0 spurt, but Nebraska responded with four straight to slam the door shut on the comeback attempt.
Nebraska hit .212, thanks to the late errors, but held Utah to .050.
The Utes kept it close for a while in set four, but Murray served a 5-0 run to put the Huskers ahead 15-8 and they cruised the rest of the way. Choboy closed it out with an ace on match point, a fitting end to the evening.
Nebraska hit .269 and held Utah to minus-.077. The middles dominated the fourth set, accounting for nine of Nebraska’s 11 kills.
The Huskers will complete their first back-to-back of the season on Saturday when they face Grand Canyon to close out the Husker Invitational. The Lopes beat Drake in five sets on Friday afternoon behind 15 kills from Sophia Parlanti. Grand Canyon held the Bulldogs to .091 hitting.
First serve is set for 6 p.m. CT. Nebraska Public Media will televise the match locally with Larry Punteney and John Cook on the call.
