25-17, 21-25, 25-18, 24-26, 15-9
CHI was electric tonight as we saw a crowd that was incredibly divided. As Husker fans, we are used to traveling really well. We still did this time, but Nebraska is the hub for volleyball so Creighton brought out so many fans as well. Can’t wait to have those same fans in blue wearing red on Saturday though as the Huskers play Michigan in football……
We saw some lineup changes that are highlight worthy when the 1st set got underway earlier tonight. Olivia Mauch got the libero
jersey for the 2nd match in a row. Mauch’s consistency and passing have to be reasons why this happened. Virginia Adriano also got the start again at opposite hitter.
Adriano and Sczech have been going back and forth with playing this position that this position will probably be watched until we see a clear cut starter. If Adriano keeps starting, in the next few matches, then it will seem like we have DBK’s decision on the starter.
The 1st set started out very back and forth tonight with every point Nebraska getting, Creighton would get one and vice versa. Both teams came out firing and definitely knew what was at stake tonight. Bragging rights.
Nebraska started to pull away in the middle of the set and never looked back. Creighton was still playing good defense and getting good looks, but the Huskers made everything they did look effortless. Balls were going where they wanted and their blocks were getting up there.
Nebraska took the 1st in a rather easy fashion after pulling away. The Huskers hit .306% while the Bluejays only hit .114% in the 1st. Andi Jackson led Husker hitters, after the 1st, hitting .500% and killing 5 for 8.
Things definitely started to fall apart in the 2nd for the Huskers when their sloppy play from past matches reared its ugly head. We’ve seen glimpses of this in the Utah and Wright State matches recently and was hoping it was out of their system.
Harper Murray was blocked in 3 of her first 4 swings of the set and this set the tone for the Huskers play the entire set. Sloppy was the name of their game.
Most of the Husker points came off of the Bluejay serving errors and these really come from Creighton serving extremely risky. Ava Martin, Jaya Johnson, and Eloise Brandewie controlled the set scoring most of the points for the Jays.
Nebraska started to make a comeback that gave Husker Nation hope that maybe we wouldn’t drop this set and we could get to bed maybe a little earlier. They came back from being down 6 points at one point, but this was false hope as Nebraska missed some digs and had service errors to give the Bluejays the 2nd set win.
Nebraska had a bad hitting set as the Huskers only hit .118%. Creighton rebounded pretty well and ended up hitting .233%. Jackson still led the Huskers hitting .600% for the match after the 2nd. Murray still led with 8 kills and Taylor Lanfair and Jackson were right behind her with 7.
The Huskers found their game again the 3rd set as the set started back and forth, but the Huskers took complete control going up 17-9 at one point.
Creighton caught the sloppy bug that the Huskers had just a set ago and looked all out of sorts when the Huskers would attack. The Bluejays started falling over each other just like Harper Murray and Rebekah Allick were in the 2nd.
After a rather quiet first 2 sets, that were filled with some errors, Virginia Adriano really came alive in the 3rd and helped the Huskers take control of the set. Adriano had 7 kills in this set and she had only had 2 in the first 2 sets combined.
The Bluejays started to make bit of a run at the end of the set as the Huskers started to make some mistakes, but it was a false alarm as the Huskers hung on and Adriano had a couple services aces to win the set for the Huskers.
Nebraska did a 180 in their hitting numbers in the 3rd hitting .353%, and even hitting .600% at one point. Creighton, despite not having the best set, hit .214%. This was only a little worse than their powerful 2nd set.
Andi Jackson still led all hitters at the end of the 3rd set hitting .562% so far. Murray and Jackson were tied at 11 kills after the 3rd.
Sets 4 and 5 were an all out brawl between both teams and you could tell they both wanted this one. Nebraska wanted to keep their perfect record against Creighton and for the season and Creighton wanted to finally get over the hump and beat Nebraska.
The 4th set was so competitive that we saw 13 ties during it. No one was able to actually pull away and it went into extra points to decide the set winner. Creighton pulled it out, to send it to 5, with a 26-24 win.
Nebraska only hit .150% while Creighton hit .200%. That was a big defensive set that led to both teams numbers being pretty low.
Well we were sent to a stressful 5th set and that’s just what it was. Stressful. 2 service aces for Creighton started the set off and made me less than thrilled as we only go to 15 points so every point counts at this point. The Bluejays, luckily, had a service error after these to make it 2-1.
The Bluejays took the first timeout of the set as Nebraska took a 6-4 lead and were less than 10 points away from the win. After the timeout, Creighton managed to only get 1 point before the Huskers took the 8-4 lead and the teams switched sides for the rest of the set.
Nebraska took charge after Creighton used up all of their timeouts, only allowing the Bluejays 5 points after switching sides. The Bluejays challenged a ball that was out by a mile so they could get one last timeout in. This didn’t matter though as the Huskers won the set, and the match, 15-9.
The Huskers definitely had some down moments tonight that kind of make you nervous when you look at playing a Texas-like team down the road. We still have a lot of time and prep before that happens though.
Andi Jackson led all Husker hitters tonight hitting .400% and Harper Murray had a team high 17 kills. Virginia Adriano had a good night as well with 13 kills and hit .320%.
Jackson and Murray topped the stat line on defense as well as they had 4 and 3 blocks respectively. Bergen Reilly led with 19 digs and Olivia Mauch followed her up with 16 of her own.
Tonights attendance of 17,675 has given the NCAA Indoor Regular Season Attendance Record back to the state of the Nebraska and back to a match that the Huskers were apart of.
After tonight’s win, the Huskers are now 24-0 all time against the Creighton Bluejays which is kind of surprising looking at some of the competition these 2 teams have had in years past. The Huskers have always owned the state though and will continue until their next meeting that will probably happen in 2026.
Nebraska will be back in action on Saturday at the Bob Devaney Center when they host the Arizona Wildcats. The match has a late start time of 8:00pm CST and will be televised on B1G Network.
