Nebraska 3-Texas 0: 25-19, 25-19, 25-16
The Husker seniors and fans have had this match circled on their calendars ever since the schedule came out for the season and match lived up to what it was supposed to be. Even though Nebraska dominated on the scoreboard, Texas still held their own and gave us some scares.
A bit of a tragedy struck the Longhorns last night in their first set against TCU as one of their start outsides, Abby Vander Wal, suffered a knee injury that is most likely a torn ACL. She
was immediately put into a brace and had lots of swelling. This could mean she is done for the season.
I have to mention this since it is a sponsor of the games this weekend, but it is kind of crazy to have a weight loss GLP-1 sponsor women’s college volleyball matches. This has been a hot subject on Twitter this weekend too. It’s not really something that should be promoted to little girls watching these matches, which there is most likely a ton of them watching.
The Huskers started out a little slow again today, but followed this start up with a 10-0 run that the Longhorns could not come back from the entire match it seemed like. The run they went on set the tone for the rest of the match early.
Texas would answer every time the Huskers got out ahead though. They would never go down without a fight and would always follow up with some mini runs of their own like in the 1st with a 5-1 run after our 1-0 run. Texas also had one in the 3rd as well.
Nebraskas serve receive was the best it has looked in a while dating back to last year. They had 7 service aces and didn’t allow any from Texas.
The Husker offense was firing on all cylinders today with Andi Jackson and Teraya Sigler looking almost flawless. Manaia Ogbechie was also a big part of the offense today as well. Skyler Pierce even came in at right side for a few points and Virginia Adriano seemed to struggle for a little bit.
Harper Murray seemed to struggle a lot, especially in the 1st set. Jaylen Reyes looked like he was giving her a little bit of a pep talk while Murray looked like she was crying a little bit. This seemed to help as Murray picked it up finishing with 8 kills and 3 blocks.
At times, it seemed like Bergen Reilly’s sets and some attackers timing was a little off. Once when it happened, we luckily scored, but it kept happening throughout the match which will need to be fixed in practice.
Andi Jackson led the team in kills today with 9 and finished hitting .571% with Harper Murray behind her with 8 kills, but only hitting .091%. Teraya Sigler rounded out the top 3 with 7 kills and hit .357%.
Teraya Sigler is looking like the Huskers top OH early in this long season as she has been very impressive this weekend leading the offense and picking up some slack when other girls are struggling.
The Huskers ended the match hitting .293%, with the 2nd set being their best at .344%. Texas hit .152% today with Cari Spears leading the team with 12 kills.
The Huskers will now travel to Bergen Reilly’s home state as they play a mid-week match against South Dakota State in Brookings. They will play on Wednesday before heading to Chicago to play against DePaul then Missouri at Wrigley Field. Wednesday’s match will start at 7pm CT.
