At the site of this year’s NCAA semifinals and national championship match, No. 5 Nebraska looked the part of national champion frontrunner Sunday. The Huskers (10-1) swept No. 4 Louisville (8-2), 25-16, 25-17, 25-20, the second sweep by Nebraska of a top-five opponent after the sweep of No. 2 Stanford at home Wednesday.
The Huskers dominated the match in every facet, outhitting the Cardinals, .305-.133, outblocking them 9-4 and outserving them seven aces to none. Harper Murray led a balanced Nebraska attack with 11 kills and an ace. Merritt Beason added nine kills and four blocks, while Andi Jackson was errorless while piling up six kills and four blocks. Rebekah Allick led the Huskers’ block with five, while Bergen Reilly tallied 26 set assists while adding four kills and two blocks.
Nebraska took control midway through set one. With Lindsay Krause back to serve, the Huskers ran seven straight points, ballooning a 9-8 NU lead to 16-8 while forcing Louisville to burn its second first-set timeout. An ace by Murray pushed the lead to 22-12. Responding to a Cardinals 3-0 run, Jackson slammed a kill to get the serve back for the Huskers, before Murray set Bergen Reilly to pull Nebraska to set point. Louisville fought off one set point, but Krause hammered a cross-court kill to clinch the set. The Huskers owned the first, outhitting the Cardinals .320-.105, serving three aces to none for UL while outblocking them 3-1.
In set two, Louisville won the first two rallies. But the third rally was a long one, ultimately won on a Krause kill. After a Krause and Allick block, Krause served three straight aces as part of a six-point run, building a 6-2 lead before a Krause service error ended the run. Two Murray kills and an attack error opened Nebraska’s lead to 9-3 before the Cardinals were forced to take a timeout. The timeout only briefly slowed down NU, as the Huskers ran three more points to buid a 12-3 lead before Louisville stopped the run. In all, a 12-1 run before the Cardinals tallied back-to-back points. Nebraska was never seriously challenged the rest of the set and Murray slapped the setpoint kill to finish off the second for the Huskers.
Set three was a little more hotly contested, but Nebraska took over during a four-point run that gave the Huskers a 15-12 lead. Louisville mounted one more push, tying the third set 16-16, but a four-point run gave Nebraska a 20-16 lead and control of the third set. From there, the Huskers cruised to the finish, clinching the match winning three of the last four rallies. Murray had two kills during that run, including a thunderous swing from the back row to finish off the match.
The victory was Nebraska’s seventh straight overall and the Huskers’ fifth against a ranked opponent and fourth against a top 10 opponent.
The Huskers open Big Ten play against UCLA Friday at 7 p.m. at the Devaney Center.