Nebraska 2 vs Texas A&M 3 – 22-25, 22-25, 25-20, 37-35, 13-15
Coach Dani Busboom Kelly said after the loss that she was proud of what her team gave today and left the game with no regrets. “We maxed out with what we had today.” We read into that statement that some players were still sick, and we assume she was also talking about the injuries that happened to Campbell Flynn earlier in the week and the one that happened during warm-ups to Allie Sczech.
Even with all those challenges it is baffling to
wrap our heads around what just happened. Texas A&M is a highly talented team that played nearly perfect volleyball inside the Devaney Center for three hours. The odds of such a feat are so low that we still cannot believe it happened.
The Aggies scouted and prepared for Nebraska with such precision. They seemed to know what shot Andi Jackson was going to hit before Jackson was even set, maybe they did. Maybe Nebraska was too predictable. Perhaps the shots the go for kills all year long because we are above the opposing block were the same over and over again.
Nebraska was blocked 30 times in this match and that stat doesn’t seem to capture the impact those blocks had on the match. Jackson was held to a .045 hitting percentage with six kills and five errors. Jackson doesn’t make that many errors, but she did tonight because of the Aggie block and perhaps a timing and connection issue with setter Bergen Reilly.
The Nebraska serve receive was also tested and if we are giving out grades got a C+. The serves were fast, flat and well located and Nebraska passers had real trouble. Laney Choboy was the target of many challenging serves. She passes some but also made five reception errors which means that ball wasn’t playable, point Aggies.
We enter the off season; we do it reluctantly and in a state of shock.
