Nebraska 3 vs Illinois 0 – 25-11, 25-15, 25-14
There are 17 players on the Nebraska roster, 14 of them saw the court tonight against Illinois and 10 earned kills. This was a total team effort. If you were
wondering whether or not Nebraska has bench players that could start on any other team in the country, well, there’s your proof.
After the match Coach Dani Busboom Kelly was asked if she was surprised by how her team started, played and adjusted to the myriad of line ups that the coaching staff put out onto the court. She more than answered this question. Coach DBK brought into focus the team’s drive; whether it’s in front of the fans or just in front of each at practice.
“I think our team knows that it is only a matter of time until our team gets pushed and they are trying to get ahead of that.”
Really, there were more outstanding individual performances in this match than one reporter can highlight in this article. Here is an attempt.
Laney Choboy wore the libero jersey and wore it well. She covered her teammates with flying digs, she passed serve and she ended the night with 20 digs, only four less than the entire Illinois team and half of all the Husker digs. She covered the court and if they made the court bigger, she would cover that too.
Andi Jackson was perfect. No, really, she was perfect. She hit the ball nine times and every single time it went for a kill. She also added four blocks.
Bergen Reilly was exceptional both in her set distribution and locations, but she played with an aggression that we don’t always see. In set one we saw her turn and swing on the second ball to become a different kind of offensive threat.
When freshman setter Campbell Flynn got the nod, she stepped in and set the offense with exceptional confidence and accuracy for a player that had been on the bench for roughly 75 minutes.
Rebekah Allick was great and so was Manaia Ogbechie. You are excited for the match today and also dreaming about the matches in the future when Ogbechie gets better and better. Tonight, both middles had three kills on four attempts.
Nebraska now travels to Minnesota for a Saturday afternoon match. These two teams play at 2:30 pm CT on November 8th. Streaming is available on Peacock.
