No. 1 Nebraska volleyball swept defending national champion Penn State in dominating fashion, 25-14, 25-11, 25-14, in the next-to-last game of the regular season Friday night at John Cook Arena. The Cornhuskers, who had already clinched the outright Big Ten regular-season championship entering Friday’s match, moved to within one match of an undefeated regular season (29-0) and an undefeated Big Ten schedule (19-0) with Friday’s victory. Nebraska will try to finish off the perfect regular season with Saturday’s match against Ohio State.
Five different Huskers had at least five kills, led by Harper Murray, who led the NU attack with 11 kills on .476 hitting, while adding four blocks. Rebekah Allick added nine kills and four blocks. Andi Jackson tallied six kills and four blocks. Virginia Adriano and Taylor Landfair both notched five kills. Bergen Reilly had a team leading 29 set assists and 12 digs. Kennedy Martin led the Nittany Lions with 11 kills, but on a meager .094 hitting. Nebraska outhit Penn State, .385-.011, outblocked it nine blocks to two, and outserved PSU seven aces to none.
The Huskers never trailed in the first two sets. Nebraska won the first two points of the match, then raced out to a 6-3 lead. The Huskers won eight of 10 points in the middle of the set to bolster their lead to 21-11. After the Nittany Lions scored back-to-back points for the first time in the set to cut the lead to 21-13, Nebraska won four of the last six points to clinch set one.
It was more of the same in set two, as the Huskers scored the first two points of the set and bolted out to a 7-2 lead. Penn State cut the Nebraska lead to 10-5, but then the Huskers ran eight straight points to open an 18-5 advantage. After a Lions’ sideout, Nebraska four more points in a row to push the lead to 22-6. Penn State closed to 24-11, but a Teraya Sigler kill finished off PSU in set two.
The Nittany Lions took their first lead of the match at 2-1, but four straight points gave the Huskers control of the third set. After Nebraska won four of the next five points to open a 9-4 lead, Penn State cut the lead to 10-6. But the Huskers won six of the next eight points to push the lead to 16-8. The teams traded points until Nebraska won seven of the last 10 points to clinch the third set.
The Huskers now prepare for their final match of the regular season Saturday at 8 p.m. at John Cook Arena against Ohio State. Pregame coverage begins at 7 p.m. on B-107.3 and KLIN.
