Three takes from No. 4 Nebraska volleyball’s 4-set win over No. 16 Creighton
No. 4 Nebraska volleyball took down in-state rival No. 16 Creighton in four sets at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Wednesday (25-9, 25-13, 23-25, 25-20). The Huskers’ floor defense was a constant highlight of the match.
After two easy sets for the Huskers, Creighton decided to focus more on themselves and their style of volleyball than the scouting report. They took set three 25-23 and .355 while doing it.
Setter Kendra Wait was a huge part of the Bluejays success in the last two matches. Husker Head Coach John Cook said she should be a first-team All-American based on how great of a setter she is. Wait finished with 32 assist, eight digs and five kills.
2022 BIG EAST Player of the Year Norah Sis was out with an ab strain. Nebraska didn’t know she wouldn’t be playing so they had to adjust the game plan. Creighton themselves didn’t know until the day before the match.
Cook said on Tuesday before the match that Nebraska wanted to be the state champions. They swept Omaha one week ago in front of a world record-breaking crowd at Memorial Stadium.
NU completed the feat with a quick three-set win over Creighton. The Bluejays and Mavericks play on Friday.
The Devaney attendance record was broken on Wednesday as 8,656 fans came to watch “a continuation” of Volleyball Day in Nebraska to celebrate volleyball in the state.
Here are my three takes from Nebraska’s first real test of the season:
Back row dominance
Nebraska volleyball had one of the best back row defenses in all of college volleyball. Before the Creighton match, they led the country with a .037 opponent hitting percentage. After their opponent percentage is at .052. The Bluejays hit .109, the highest of any of Nebraska’s opponents.
Libero Lexi Rodriguez led the team with 14 digs and 18 perfect serve receives. Creighton Head Coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth said her team served to Rodriguez too much early on. Rodriguez had no difficulty passing well in those situations.
“She made some phenomenal digs tonight and keeps balls alive,” Cook said. “I don’t know how many digs she had but we’re trying to have her pass as many balls as possible. She plays a really big role for us and makes a lot of gives us a lot of chances to win points whether we’re siding out or it’s in a rally.”
Speaking of siding out, Nebraska’s goal is to be in the 60s for their sideout percentage. All four sets where at 66 or above. Two were in the 80s.
Set three was Nebraska’s lowest sideout percentage with 66. The Huskers were high errors, while Creighton only had four hitting errors during the set.
But throughout the offense dig and struggles, the Nebraska floor defense sustained.
“I think we did a really good job and that didn’t really waver throughout the match,” Krause said. “I think that stayed strong and it was one of our kind of rocks throughout when our attack or block struggled a little bit our floor defense kept us going which was really great.”
Veteran hitters shine
Both outside hitter Lindsay Krause, opposite Merritt Beason and middle Bekka Allick shined offensively for the Huskers.
Krause had her best match of the 2023 season against the Huskers’ first ranked opponent. She had 12 kills on 23 swings with one errors. The junior hit .478, a season high, and a season-high 12 kills.
In set three when Nebraska was struggling as a team, Krause had five kills, no errors and hit .714. Toward the end of the set, she had three kills after 23-21 Bluejays. She also added one of her three blocks at 22-20 CU.
Freshman OH Harper Murray had 10 kills and a .280 clip.
On the right pin, Beason had 17 kills and hit .216. She added seven digs and three blocks. The junior pulled up for a great solo block during the last set.
Beason received praise from Bernthal Booth. The Huskers and Creighton scrimmaged during the spring. Bernthal Booth said Beason has improved since then.
“She was impressive and I know our numbers maybe don’t dictate but she was better at the back row than the front row which is a pretty formulative,” she said.
Another player she brought up without being specifically asked was Allick.
Allick’s offensive numbers have been down in 2022. However, Bernthal Booth and Creighton didn’t see that on Wednesday.
“Some of the players that had been struggling offensively,” she said. “Allick specifically I thought really had a good match and we had a lot of trouble containing her.”
Against CU, Allick had seven kills and hit .600 in three sets. She added two blocks. Cook started Maggie Mendelson in set three to get her playing time.
Andi Jackson made up for Allick’s dip in blocks with six of her own. She also added five kills and a .267 clip.
Nebraska’s veteran hitters really stepped up and shined against Creighton.
Losing the first set
Nebraska lost its first set on Wednesday after sweeping five straight teams.
Of Nebraska’s next six opponents, five are ranked. They will need to learn to come back after losing sets and how to close out sets.
Cook said his team is at the point in the season where they are getting better every match. They are learning about how this team works together in tough situations and how to dig themselves out.
Being tested by Creighton helped Nebraska learn, Cook hopes, one important lesson.
“I just think learning you the sense of urgency on every point,” Cook said. “Mentally, you cannot let up and I thought the scoreboard caused us to let up a little bit.”
“You can talk about all you want in practice and you can work on practice, but this is where they learn it,” he said.
With the competition increasing, Krause has seen her teammates take their production up a level.
“I think that we all kind of went up a step every single one of us on the court,” Krause said. “Whether it’s defense, blocking, hitting serving, I think we all went up a notch. We knew that in order to play a competitive team like Creighton.
“I think Creighton’s the first top-25 team that we’ve played so far, and we’ve talked about how going forward it’s only going to get tougher. So I think we all kind of took a step back and we realized how we all have to up our game, getting really ready for conference and going forward. We all have to take that step and I think we all did a really great job tonight.”
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