After this weekend of Husker sports, Nebraska definitely owes me a new heart. After football taking it down to the wire and getting a game winning interception and volleyball getting a reverse sweep, I think we all deserve a little break from some Husker sports.
Let me recover real quick before I get into the recap……
Alright here we go…
The 1st set was tough to watch today. The Huskers started out looking like they were going to quickly run away with this thing, but Kentucky found their rhythm and never
looked back. Nebraska, on the other hand, looked like they spent the night on Broadway. Allie Sczech got the start at opposite today, but that only lasted for about 2 seats.
A bright spot in the 1st was Teraya Sigler’s amazing save as she ran off of the court and into one of the pads at the end of the court to save the ball and eventually win the point for the Huskers. This was one of the bright spots in a match that will be one that will need to be learned from.
Bergen Reilly had a tough match today as, early on, it looked like her sets were just completely off. Reilly and Jackson were not on the same page today as Jackson struggled as well only hitting .185% and going 10 for 12 on the day. Even after a tough set, Nebraska still out hit Kentucky in the 1st at .278% to .234%.
Set 2 was just as hard, or even harder to watch, as more girls started to struggle as well. Laney Choboy just had a rough day all around. Kentucky aced a few balls right at her and definitely knocked her confidence down with it. Murray, Landfair, and Sczech all struggled in this set with all of their numbers dipping under .250%. Skyler Pierce was brought in at the end of the set, but only played a couple of points then and at the beginning of the 3rd.
DBK made a few changes that proved to be game saving in the end. Virginia Adriano was brought in for Sczech at opposite and Olivia Mauch got to the wear the Libero jersey for the first time this year after Choboy struggled early. Choboy still remained in the match as the defensive specialist though.
Nebraska stepped it up a in the 3rd because well they had to to remain in the match. You can tell just from the hitting numbers that they stepped it up. The Huskers hit .323% while holding Kentucky to only hitting .105%. Brooklyn DeLaye and Eva Hudson were basically the Wildcats whole team and they finally found a way to stop them for awhile. Rebekah Allick led all Husker hitters at the end of the 3rd hitting .500%.
The Huskers hitters were finally starting to find their groove and get on top of balls at this point. Reilly was serving better as well which led to the hitting adjustment. You can tell Murray kicked it up a notch as well as she started hitting harder too. She looked like she had more confidence. The Huskers pushed through and won the 3rd to send it to the 4th for another must-win set.
The Huskers looked like a team to start the 4th. They came out hot, but it kind of looked like the 1st set again as Kentucky crept back into the set to make it interesting once again. Nebraska’s opposites really struggled today as Adriano was hitting negative late into the 4th set. They pulled out another heart attack inducing win in set 4 to send it to a decisive 5th set.
The Huskers took charge in the 5th set by playing like they should’ve been all match. They held Kentucky to hitting in the negative at -.143% and shut down DeLaye and Hudson to get the reverse sweep today.
For the match, the Huskers hit .221% and Kentucky hit .168% which is very surprising because the Huskers seemed to struggle a lot more in this category than the Wildcats did.
Harper Murray led all Nebraska hitters today at .340%, going 23 for 47 with 7 errors. Allick was the only other Husker hitter over .300 today hitting exactly .300%. Jackon, Landfair, and Sigler brought up the rear with Reilly getting a couple kills of her own.
This was Nebraska’s first reverse sweep since November 3rd, 2023 at Penn State when they beat the Nittany Lions at Rec Hall.
Today’s match really opened our eyes to some of the issues that need to be fixed. Passing was complete ass today and really needs to be cleaned up. They were also in the net too many times to count. So many free points were handed to Kentucky, and vice versa, because of this.
Another observation I made had to do with free balls. They’ve started a thing this year that when the other team tries to send a free ball over, we try to block it. Just take the free ball. Set up for a big hit. They’ve been whiffing a lot on these attempts and it will start to cost them in the future. It did a little bit today.
Nebraska will be back at it at the Devaney Center, for the first time this season, on Friday night. They will be competing in the Ameritas Players Challenge. They will take on Wright State at 7:00pm on B1G+. Get those subscriptions ready everyone!
