Nebraska 3, Michigan State 0 – 25-15, 25-15, 25-18
Well it wouldn’t be a game day if it didn’t include a Husker volleyball sweep. They are looking unstoppable at this point as they continued to roll against
the Michigan State Spartans for the 2nd time this season.
Both coaches tonight, Kristen Kelsay and Dani Busboom Kelly, both played, assistant coached, and are now head coaches at their Alma maters which is very cool to see for these women!
Some pregame notes include an update on Senior OH Taylor Landfair. Last night she went down with a twisted ankle and didn’t return. She was also out tonight as well and Teraya Sigler got the opportunity to play all 6 rotations until the middle of the 2nd set.
Landfair was dressed for tonight’s match and could go in if they needed her, but DBK decided it wasn’t worth it and wanted to probably rest her for Wisconsin on Friday, 10/31. This was probably a little frustrating for Skyler Pierce as she is ready to go, but didn’t get to play Landfair’s spot until later in the match.
The B1G is always known as one of the most competitive conferences in volleyball, and I still believe it is. This year has been a little different though as Nebraska has just been running through teams. They’ve even beat some teams that are ranked and should be stiff competition.
Minnesota and Wisconsin have had injury issues, Penn State losing Izzy Starck just threw their season out the window, it seems like, and teams like Purdue who are ranked high didn’t really even compete with the Huskers.
The Huskers did not lay off tonight as they started set 1 right where they ended last night. They took a quick 5-1 lead with Virginia Adriano going 2 for 2 right off the bat. Nebraska was just a freight train in the 1st only allowing Michigan State to score 6 more points before they got ahead 17-7.
Michigan State took a timeout after the Huskers went up by 10 and came out with a little more fire putting some points on the board to make the score seem closer than what was actually happening. Harper Murray and Rebekah Allick won the set for the Huskers, 25-5, on a textbook block.
Virginia Adriano and Teraya Sigler both recorded 5 kills in the 1st while Andi Jackson led all hitters, that had multiple kills, hitting .667%. The hitting numbers reflected what was happening on the court as Nebraska hit .343% and held Michigan State to .088%.
The 2nd set started out way different than the 1st as Michigan State struck 1st and the 2 teams continued to trade points for the 1st part of the set. Nebraska was even hitting .000% to start out as they only had 1 kill on 7 attempts, and 1 error.
After Nebraska struggled both offensively and defensively early, they cleaned it up and went on a 5-0 run to get Michigan State to take a timeout when the Huskers took at 13-10 lead.
After the timeout, Skyler Pierce entered the match and so did Maisie Boesiger as Boesiger got to come in as a serving sub. She went on an impressive 6-0 run from the service line as well.
This led the Spartans to taking another timeout as the Huskers took a more commanding lead at 20-12, blowing the set open. They went from hitting .000% early in the to jumping into the .400’s for a little bit.
Another Nebraska scoring run, this time 6-0, they went up 23-12 and the Spartans were out of timeouts at this point so they just had to ride it out and watch the Huskers win the set by 10.
After 2 sets, Rebekah Allick led Nebraska with 8 kills while Virginia Adriano led the hitters with a hitting percentage of .675%. Like I said before, the Huskers turned it around and hit .393% in the 2nd set and held Michigan State back even more, even though they had a better set, hitting .036% this time around.
A few lineup changes came at the start of the 3rd set as Allie Sczech came in for Virginia Adriano and Manaia Ogbechie came in, for the 2nd night in a row, but this time for Rebekah Allick.
It’s always nice to see the freshman and bench players get some playing time in these matches as this is something that John Cook didn’t really do much of.
Set 3 started out with Michigan State rolling into an early 6-3 lead catching the Huskers sleeping just a little bit. They were struggling a little bit early in the set just like they were in the 2nd too.
Nebraska quickly took the 11-9 lead, after being down, and forced the Spartans to take their 1st timeout of the set. Michigan State wasn’t going away though, keeping the set close all the way to the end.
After a Michigan State timeout taken at a 20-16 Nebraska lead, the Huskers were able to close the match out and keep their sweep streak alive going into a tough match against Wisconsin next week.
Teraya Sigler led the Huskers with 9 kills tonight while Rebekah Allick and Harper Murray followed with 8 kills. Virginia Adriano and Andi Jackson both had 7, Manaia Ogbechie with 5, Bergen Reilly with 4, and Allie Sczech and Skyler Pierce followed with 3 and 2, respectively.
Bergen Reilly had a great night with her setter dump as she went 4 for 4 and hit a perfect 1.000% because of this. She also added 5 blocks on defense as well so she had a well rounded night.
Manaia Ogbechie managed to kill 5 balls and hit .833% after only playing in the final set tonight while Virginia Adriano played 2 sets and hit .667%. Allie Sczech also managed a perfect night, only playing in the 3rd, going 3 for 3.
Nebraska hit .382% at the clip tonight and Michigan State climbed their way into double digits after struggling in the first 2 sets. They ended at .118% with their best hitter tonight, Zuzanna Kulig, hitting .368%.
Nebraska will be back on the road, but only for Friday’s match, as they take on #12 Wisconsin at the UW Field House for what will probably be a very exciting match. It usually always is between these two. The match will be at 8:00pm CT on B1G Network.
On Sunday, they will be back home at the Bob when they play the Oregon Ducks to close out their weekend. The match will begin at 1:00pm CT on B1G Network as well.
