No. 1 Nebraska volleyball took a dominant first step toward another conference championship with a 25-22, 25-10, 25-13 sweep of Michigan Wednesday night at John Cook Arena in Lincoln in the Big Ten opener for both teams. The Cornhuskers moved to 11-0 with the win, their seventh sweep of the season.
Nebraska dominated the Wolverines (10-2, 1-1), outhitting Michigan, .380-.108 and outserving them five aces to two. Harper Murray led the Huskers with 11 kills while hitting an efficient .391. Virginia Adriano added 10 kills while hitting .444 and contributing three blocks. Rebekah Allick had nine kills and two blocks, while Andi Jackson posted eight kills on nine attempts with three blocks. Bergen Reilly had 28 set assists and nine digs, falling just short of a double-double, while Olivia Mauch led Nebraska with 11 digs. The tough Husker defense held Michigan outside hitter Allison Jacobs, one of the top offensive players in the Big Ten, to just eight kills on 28 attempts, a skimpy .143 hitting percentage.
The Wolverines came in having swept their last four matches, so it wasn’t surprising that the first set was the most competitive. Michigan jumped out to a 3-1 lead. The Huskers won four of the next five points, taking a 5-4 lead. Michigan tied the set at five, but a Jacobs service error plus two Allick kills pushed the NU lead to 8-5. Five straight Huskers points pushed the lead to 16-9. The Wolverines surged late in the first set, cutting the NU advantage to 22-21, but Nebraska won three of the final four rallies to clinch the set.
The second set was all Huskers, and started out all Adriano. Nebraska took a 5-0 lead to open the second stanza, with Adriano notching three kills. After a Michigan point, the Huskers won seven of the next eight rallies to build a 12-2 lead and erase most of the drama from the second set. The Wolverines did return fire for a bit, winning seven of the next nine rallies. But the Huskers stormed back, scoring 11 of the last 12 points in the set to win the second.
The third set started close, with four ties in the sixteen rallies. After Michigan tied the third set at eight, Nebraska exploded on a 12-1 run that all but ended the match, with NU holding a 20-9 edge. Allick had three kills and a block to set the pace in the Huskers’ dominant run. The Wolverines won three of the next five rallies to cut Nebraska’s lead to 22-12, but the Huskers won three of the last four points to finish off the match for their 51st straight home win.
Nebraska returns to the court Saturday at 3 p.m. to take on Maryland. Pregame coverage begins at 2 p.m. on KLIN and B-107.3.