Nebraska 3, Kansas State 0
25-17, 25-21, 25-16
Laney Choboy was given the nod at libero tonight after Olivia Mauch played this last night against Long Island. The rest of the starting lineup remained the same.
Even though the Huskers didn’t have their best showing of the season tonight, they still managed to get the sweep and punch their ticket to the Regional semifinals, or the Sweet 16. Thanks to the Men’s Basketball tournament, they don’t allow volleyball to use Sweet 16, Elite 8, etc. *Insert eyeroll
here*
The 1st set opened tonight with the Huskers looking strong and continuing their dominance from last night before starting to show some cracks through the set at times. Laney Choboy recorded an ace early on with Virginia Adriano getting one as well a few points later to get the 7-2 lead.
I also wanted to point out the just terrible audio that made Larry Puteney sound like an alien for the entire 1st set tonight. This was on B1G+ level tonight. This is just another reason to move the tournament completely off of ESPN+, in my opinion.
Nebraska’s mistakes started at this point and lead to the Wildcats cutting their lead to 9-7. The Huskers didn’t like this, clearly, as they took the next 4 points and forced K-State to take a timeout with Nebraska leading 13-7.
The Huskers extended their point streak to 5 after the timeout, but K-State answered back with a block by Lincoln Southwest grad Shaylee Myers. They were being held to only hitting .200% at this point in the set.
Kansas State found more answers, once again, to the Huskers’ run, closing the gap to 15-12 with 4 straight points before Rebekah Allick ended this with a kill. The Wildcats came as close as 2 points before Harper Murray got a kill to give a little bit more of a cushion.
Teraya Sigler had a big save in the back court and got the ball over the net on the 3rd hit and the Huskers ended up winning this point on a Kansas State error to send the Wildcats to a timeout at 19-14 Huskers.
Nebraska was the first team to 20, but Kansas State didn’t quit as they took the next 2 points before the Huskers finally closed out the set with a 25-17 win.
Harper Murray led the team with 5 kills in the 1st set while Andi Jackson was hitting .667%. They also had 7 errors in this set which was something DBK was probably not happy about.
As a team, they only hit .286% for the set because of how many errors they had racked up. Even though they didn’t hit the best, they still held the Wildcats to under .100 at .086%.
Kansas State continued to show fight taking a quick 2-0 lead in set 2 while Harper Murray struggled at the start of the set, along with the rest of the team as they were hitting negative at -.222%.
K-State took a 4-1 lead which is something teams really didn’t do much to Nebraska this season so the Huskers had to keep their composure and find a way. Olivia Mauch started this with an ace to close K-State’s lead to one at 4-3.
Nebraska tied the set at 4 and continued to go back and forth with the Wildcats until they took their largest lead of the set at 13-10. They eventually got to 15 first and sent the match into the TV timeout with a 2-point, 15-13 lead.
Maisie Boesiger got to make an appearance at the service line after Nebraska scored their 17th point, but sadly sent her serve into the net. Bergen Reilly would come up to the service line soon after and get an ace that caused the Wildcats to take their first timeout of the set at a 19-15 Husker lead.
Nebraska looked like they were starting to run away with the set causing Kansas State to take their final timeout for the match with the Huskers leading 21-16. After the timeout, Allie Sczech checked into the match for the 1st time tonight after Virginia Adriano struggled and was hitting negative.
Kansas State had a late push of their own causing the Huskers to take a timeout after the Wildcats scored 3 straight points. The Huskers still had the 22-20 lead after this.
After the timeout, Harper Murray took a swing, but was blocked to bring the Wildcats within one. The Huskers took control, once again, and scored 3 straight points to win the set 25-21.
Harper Murray still led the team in kills, after 2, with 8 while Andi Jackson also still led the team hitting .444%. Allie Sczech was hitting .500% after the 2nd set, but she had only taken 4 swings at this point while Jackson had 9.
The Huskers actually got out hit in the 2nd set which is something that rarely happens to the Huskers. They only managed to hit .139% while Kansas State hit just a little better at .171%. Nebraska only had one more error than the Wildcats with 7 yet again.
Virginia Adriano came back into the match to start the 3rd set after being pulled in the 2nd after a rough start. Nebraska, as a team, continued to struggle though.
Kansas State tied the set at 3 on an Andi Jackson hitting error and followed this up with a service ace to give them a 4-3 lead on a 3-0 scoring run. Adriano had another hitting error to extend the K-State run to 4-0.
Adriano ended this run with a kill to close the K-State lead to one at 5-4. Andi Jackson followed this up with a kill to tie the match at 5 each. Jackson gave them another lead at 7-6 and the set was going point for point for a little bit.
Taylor Landfair had a hitting error to give Kansas State the 9-8 lead again, but the Wildcats followed this up with a service error to put the match back into a tie.
The Huskers started to heat up a little going into the TV timeout taking a 5 point, 15-10 lead, which was the largest lead for them in the set.
Nebraska forced Kansas State to take another timeout shortly after the TV one as they took the 18-12 lead off of strong kills from Virginia Adriano and Rebekah Allick. Their hitting numbers were looking stronger at this point.
The Huskers’ started to look like the Husker team that we know and love. They shut down the Wildcats coming out of their timeout, going on a 3-0 run forcing K-State to take their last timeout of the set. The Huskers had the 21-12 lead at this point.
Nebraska’s run ended at 5 points when K-State scored a point that was straight down the line. After a long rally, K-State ended up in the net to give the Huskers a 10-point, 23-13, lead.
Andi Jackson got her 10th kill of the match to take it to set point which they had to wait for as K-State answered with a kill. A Harper Murray hitting error sent the Huskers to a 2nd set point.
Taylor Landfair ended the match with a kill into the K-State block that was out. The Wildcats would call for a challenge, but it was officially ruled out and the Huskers got the sweep against Kansas State.
The Huskers did not have their strongest match tonight, but ended the 3rd strong hitting .393% and only had 4 errors as opposed to 7 in each of the first 2 sets.
Andi Jackson and Harper Murray both ended the night with 10 kills each, but it was Jackson who had the better hitting night as she hit .533% while Murray only hit .129% on 31 swings.
Taylor Landfair had 8 kills, Virginia Adriano improved as the night went on to get 7 kills, and Rebekah Allick had 6 of her own. Allick led this group of 3, hitting .308%. Allie Sczech rounded them out with 2 kills.
No one really had the best blocking night as the team only managed to get 5 while Kansas State had 8 of their own. Andi Jackson led the way with 3 for the Huskers while Virginia Adriano had 2.
Nebraska will have a couple days to practice as regionals won’t begin until as early as Thursday, the 11th, or Friday, the 12th. Whenever their next match is, they will face the #4 seed Kansas Jayhawks who have defeated High Point and #5 seed Miami (FL).
