Bergen Reilly (2) and Andi Jackson (15) block the ball during the game against Dayton at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024, in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Bergen Reilly (2) and Andi Jackson (15) block the ball during the game against Dayton at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Friday, Dec. 13, 2024, in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Saturday night was an ugly one for the Huskers, but sometimes ugly wins are the best wins.
Nebraska took care of Dayton in four sets (25-17, 25-18, 27-25, 25-13). The win comes in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament and the Huskers are now one win shy of reaching the final four.
Here are three takeaways and a question from the victory:
Nebraska finished with a .216 hit percentage on the night, but there were moments when it did not look pretty.
In the early parts of the first set both teams were hitting below .200. The Huskers also failed to jump out to a hot start much like they had planned to do so early on. Five of Dayton’s first six points came on errors whether from the attack or the serve.
Nebraska still got back on track midway through the set after a 10-3 run. In the middle of the run, sophomore middle blocker Andi Jackson stuffed the Flyers’ front row at the net. They recovered quickly and served it back to Jackson who thought she had secured another kill. Jackson managed to get back into the system and hammered the ball right back where it came from. Jackson’s resilient effort sums up the night perfectly. When things looked ugly Nebraska still found a way to make it work.
The Huskers managed to raise their hit percentage back up and finished the first set hitting at a .273 clip. Matters got messy again when the attack started to crumble in the following set.
Set two saw Nebraska hit at a .056 percentage while also adding in eight attack errors.
Despite the abnormal performance, the Huskers still managed to find a way to get a victory in a set where the statistics were against them. Nebraska stayed in its system and prevented the Flyers from capitalizing on any lulls in their offense.
The Huskers had managed to rack up a match-high 24 digs along with two blocks on the side.
With this Nebraska squad, the balanced attack is talked about a lot, and rightfully so. That does not mean one player is incapable of completely taking over at key moments. Tonight sophomore outside hitter Harper Murray provided some firepower even if it was not directly at the net.
Coming into the tournament, Murray has echoed how much the team has helped her develop confidence. With tonight’s performance, that heightened self-esteem was on display to everyone watching.
“We were just not in a great rhythm and were really choppy,” head coach John Cook said postgame. “It started with her serving. She made a run every time she was back there it felt like.”
Murray finished the night with 22 kills on 44 attacks, but her most impressive stretch came during the second set when she provided two aces in a row. Dayton called a timeout to try and break up the momentum, but Murray came out and continued singing the lyrics when she got her third ace in a row.
“I remember at the beginning of the year [Cook] was like ‘We’re not scoring well in your rotation serving,’” Murray said postgame. “I kind of took that personal.”
Murray had an all-around dominant performance as she provided four aces, 16 digs and four blocks. She was a bright spot when the Huskers could not find a way to make their usual tricks work. Murray being able to have performances like this raises Nebraska’s ceiling greatly, especially since it was able to use that momentum to put together a strong fourth set.
“You don’t play six perfect matches in the tournament,” Cook said postgame. “There’s gonna be times you got to win ugly and fight through it.”
And for Nebraska, that’s exactly what it did. Even though the prior sets looked a little sluggish and fans may have wanted to head home, the final set was the best set for the Huskers.
In the third set, Nebraska was close to securing the sweep, but Dayton finished out with back-to-back kills. During that set, they recorded a hit percentage of .333 and two-time Atlantic-10 Player of the Year Lexie Almodovar came to life with 12 kills.
In the fourth set, The Huskers held The Flyers to a -0.148 clip and Almodovar only added one additional kill to her total. Nebraska finished with 13 kills in the set and hit just below .300 with a .296 clip.
Throughout the season different players have reiterated how important it is to not stress when things get tough. The looming cloud everyone refers back to is the national championship game against Texas.
Saturday was a reflection of that mentality, even though the offense was not there they were still able to fall back on their serving and defense to keep their title hopes alive.
The hope for Husker fans is that with all the weapons on the roster, a night like this would never occur. Yet, it’s a good sign of the discipline that this prides itself on and the chemistry they have to still will out a victory.
Nebraska will advance to play against Wisconsin in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. The Huskers have swept the Badgers in both of their prior matchups this season, but Wisconsin is one of the biggest rivals to Nebraska and it will surely be looking to add another victory to the record books.
The winner of the match advances to Louisville to play in the Final Four against the winner of Penn State and Creighton.
sports@dailynebraskan.com
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