Nebraska 3-Michigan State 1: 21-25, 25-19, 25-17, 25-12
Today’s match at Michigan State was almost a cut, copy, and paste of last nights at Michigan. The Spartans made the Huskers uncomfortable by taking the first set from them and making the Huskers claw back in order to get the win.
Nebraska will need to figure out a way to clean up their first set play after this weekend in Michigan as that could be something that can bite them in the butt in the post season. No one should be worried. This team
knows how to fix things and fix them fast.
Even though it isn’t an excuse, the Huskers finished their match around 8pm last night which means they played around a two and half hour match last night. This is definitely something that will affect them as they haven’t had a good amount of recovery time.
No excuses though as Michigan State played last night as well and had around the same amount of recovery time. Your opponent will never feel bad for you so its one of those things you just can’t think about and just have to do.
Like I mentioned earlier, the 1st set went all wrong, just like last night. The Spartans even out hit them .375% to .259%. No one usually out hits Nebraska like this.
The Huskers have proven to be a team that wont let this kind of thing phase them. They looked so much better all around in the 2nd and 3rd sets. Virginia Adriano wasn’t having the best night though, hitting -.400% on 5 swings, so Ryan Hunter entered the match in the 2nd set and played lights out.
Set 4 also went the Huskers’ way for them to be able to put Michigan State away and leave with the 3-1 win and move to 23-0. In the final set, they hit a little lower than the prior, but still looked in charge. Skyler Pierce even got in for some of the final points of the match.
Andi Jackson and Manaia Ogbechie had a big match each to help the team climb out of their first set hole. Jackson had 12 kills and hit .360% while Ogbechie had 11 kills and hit a crazy .786% on 14 swings and no errors.
Harper Murray also had 12 kills, like Jackson, but had 7 of the teams 16 errors so she only ended up hitting .147% for the nights.
Ryan Hunter came in during the middle of the 2nd set and had a perfect match going 7/7 and also getting 2 blocks. Pierce, who also came in late, went 3/3 in the 4th set with 1 ace as well.
Bergen Reilly had a packed stat line going 2/4 hitting, 3 service aces, 5 digs, and also 6 total blocks. One of those six was a solo block too. Reilly really went all out tonight on both ends of the ball.
Teraya Sigler, like Adriano, was kind of on the struggle bus offensively tonight. She had 5 kills, but also 4 errors, on 14 swings and only hit .071%. She really helped on the defensive end though with 7 digs and 1 block.
Olivia Mauch had a solid night with 12 digs while Laney Choboy struggled a little bit with 3 service errors, 2 receiving errors, and only 3 digs. Keri Leimbach came in for a little bit, but had a receiving error of her own and that was her night.
Overall, their trip to Michigan showed that they are beatable and have some things to work on when they get back into the gym next week. Everyone is wanting to be the team that beats the #1 team, but no Husker fan wants to see that happen.
Nebraska will come home before taking another road trip next weekend. This time they will head out to the west coast and set their clocks back 2 hours instead of ahead 1.
They will play their first of two games on Saturday against Oregon with the match beginning at 9:00pm CST at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene. The match will be televised on the B1G Network.
