Nebraska 3, Northwestern 0 – 25-17, 25-13, 25-17
Nebraska keeps their sweep streak alive as they beat Northwestern tonight in a quick match. It only took about an hour and half for the Huskers to come away
with yet another win and to continue their undefeated bid this season.
After 2 weeks out, Skyler Pierce was finally back in uniform and ready to play tonight. She had been wearing a boot after she sustained an ankle injury in practice. Although she was ready, she didn’t get to see the court. Tonight was also the annual pink out night for cancer so the Huskers sported pink sleeves, and hair ties.
Since this match was on Nebraska Public Media, we got 2 of the B1G’s best commentators in Larry Putney and John Cook. This meant the starting lineup they show on screen was actually right. Finally.
Coming into tonight Northwestern was the #2 team in aces and Northwestern outside Ayah Elndy is a big part of this as she has a hybrid serve. This means it’s a mix between a normal float serve and a jump serve which has proven to be dangerous.
Laney Choboy earned her 3rd straight start at libero tonight, but this is something she, and Mauch, aren’t focused on as Choboy stated that they are focused on a National Championship, not the starting libero.
In the beginning of the match, Northwestern used an early challenge as what looked like a Harper Murray kill hit some fingers before going out. After reviewing, it didn’t hit any and Northwestern won this early challenge. Harper Murray soon followed this up with an ace though.
The Huskers had a couple errors, hitting and serving, which gave Northwestern an 8-7 lead, but this was short lived as Taylor Landfair tied it back up and the Huskers, then, exploded from there.
Northwestern was forced to take a timeout after Nebraska went up 13-9, but that didn’t help as the Huskers expanded their lead with an 11-1 run to go up 19-10.
The Huskers won the 1st set, with a little push back from the Wildcats, but they got it done. Harper Murray led with 4 kills after the 1st and Bergen Reilly led in hitting percentage, hitting perfectly at 1.000%.
Nebraska continued their hot hitting game as they hit .375% in the 1st and held the Wildcats to .040% as they really weren’t able to do much at the net because of the Husker block.
The 2nd set started out very back and forth for a little bit as both teams were getting their licks in. The Huskers had a scare early in the set though. After a long rally, that the Huskers won the point on, Taylor Landfair went down with an injury and limped off the court.
John Cook reported that it doesn’t look like she got any ice and no one was observing her for too long to cause concern. She did not return at all in the 2nd set.
After watching their teammate go down, the Huskers went on a 4-0 run that led to a Northwestern timeout. The Huskers jumped to a 3-8 lead after the beginning of the set started with point trading.
The Huskers’ hitting was down a little from the 1st, but their errors went down to 1 after accruing 5 alone in the 1st set. Harper also got her 2nd ace of the match in the 2nd set to help extend their lead.
Nebraska went on a 9-1 run to win the set by 12 points at 25-13. Harper Murray and Andi Jackson both had 6 kills at the end of the 2nd. Virginia Adriano, Teraya Sigler, Bergen Reilly, and Taylor Landfair were all tied, hitting at a .500% clip after the 2nd.
I mentioned above that they weren’t hitting as good, but their “not as good” is still better than some team’s best. They hit .364% in the 2nd while the Wildcats did a little better, hitting .091%.
Starting the 3rd set, Manaia Ogbechie came in for Andi Jackson for the rest of the night. John Cook joked that she was benched since she was only hitting .286% tonight.
Teraya Sigler ended up playing in the front row for the rest of the night for Landfair as she did not return tonight. This kind of looked like a sneak peek for next year when Landfair graduates.
The Huskers jumped out to a 12-8 lead that quickly became 17-10 after a 4-0 run. They scored one more point to hit 18-10 before Northwestern took a timeout.
After this timeout, we saw Campbell Flynn come in for Bergen Reilly to play the rest of the match tonight. There were no seniors on the floor at one point in the 3rd which was a little preview for next year.
Northwestern took another timeout as the Huskers were up 21-15 and about to cap off yet another sweep. The Wildcats notched a few points following the timeout that showed they still had fight.
Northwestern played their most competitive set in the 3rd, but it still didn’t help them get any closer to beating the Huskers. The match finished on a Virginia Adriano ace, that hit the tape and died, to move the Huskers to 19-0 this season.
Harper Murray topped the team in kills tonight with 9 while Rebekah Allick and Teraya Sigler were the top hitters tonight, in players that had over 5 kills, hitting .417%. They each had 7 kills as well.
Andi Jackson followed with 6 kills, Virginia Adriano with 5, and Manaia Ogbechie with 4 to round out the top hitters.
They were a little high in errors tonight as they had 5 in sets 1 and 3 plus 1 in the 2nd set total 11 total errors which isn’t great. On a better note though, they had 10 blocks tonight and looked solid at the net.
The Huskers started off the weekend slate hitting .357% tonight and holding Northwestern to only hitting .099%. Teams continue to have hitting troubles against us and this is looking good going into the. Wisconsin match exactly a week from today.
Nebraska will close out the weekend tomorrow when they play Michigan State at 7:30pm CT. This match will be broadcasted on B1G Network. Tune into Nebraska football vs. Northwestern tomorrow at 11:00am CT on FS1.
