No. 1 Nebraska volleyball rolled to a first-round NCAA Tournament win over Long Island, 25-11, 25-15, 25-17, Friday at John Cook Arena.
As expected, the Cornhuskers (31-0) thoroughly dominated the match, outhitting the Sharks, .476-.094, outblocking them 10-2 and outserving them, five aces to one. Rebekah Allick and Andi Jackson led Nebraska with 10 kills each. Allick hit .750 on 12 attacks, while Jackson hit a surgical .833 on 12 attacks while adding a team-leading five blocks. Harper Murray and Taylor Landfair tallied seven kills. Virginia Adriano contributed six kills and five blocks. Bergen Reilly notched 39 set assists. LIU was led by Sara Van Gisteren’s eight kills.
Nebraska bolted out to a 6-2 lead in the first set. A four-point run pushed the Huskers’ lead to 13-7. Later in the set, a seven-point run including two kills and an ace by Murray pushed the NU advantage to 21-9. Nebraska won three of the last four points, with a Landfair kill completing set one. In all, the Huskers won 12 of the last 16 rallies to make short work of set one. NU hit a blistering .615 in set one.
The Huskers continued their dominance into set two. Nebraska won the first four points and opened a 9-3 lead. After the Huskers won five of six points, the lead ballooned to 16-7. NU ran four straight points including two Reilly aces to grow the lead to 23-12. An Allick kill clinched set two.
In set three, Nebraska raced out to a 7-1 lead. The Huskers pushed the lead to 15-5. Long Island put together its best stretch of volleyball of the night, winning six of seven points to cut the NU lead to 23-16, but Nebraska won two of the last three points to finish off the match.
Nebraska advances to Saturday’s second-round match, taking on Kansas State. The Wildcats defeated San Diego in the first round, 21-25, 25-17, 26-28, 25-22, 15-12. First serve will be at 7 p.m., with pregame coverage starting at 6 p.m., on KLIN and B-107.3.