1 week Ago By AMIE JUST Lincoln Journal Star
No. 2 Nebraska looked human. After a stretch of four consecutive sweeps, the Huskers dropped a set for the first time since late October.
Granted, it was just one set in Nebraska’s 25-12, 22-25, 25-22, 25-19 victory over No. 16 Minnesota, but it was a dropped set. It wasn’t a particularly pretty match, either, as Nebraska hit .
199 — considerably off the benchmark the Huskers set for themselves, but it got the job done. “Gritty over pretty,” sophomore middle blocker Andi Jackson said post-match. “Sometimes there’s gonna be those games where maybe the stat sheet isn’t pretty, but just coming together and just being team-first in those moments and it will reflect on the court.
” Setter Bergen Reilly added: “It doesn’t always have to be pretty. A win’s a win. And just having that mindset, we competed tonight.
We knew it was going to be a slugfest coming in and we talked about it in the locker room before — just having to compete, and compete doesn’t always mean ‘play your best.’ We know we didn’t play our best, but we competed really hard, so I’m proud of us.” Thoughts from Thursday’s victory over Minnesota: All-American setter Bergen Reilly — who was named an AVCA Player of the Year Semifinalist on Thursday — came to play.
Reilly, who is known for being aggressive with her dump kills and being active on both the block and with digs, stepped up her game even more on Thursday night. Reilly finished the match with six kills, a career-high. But that wasn’t the most impressive metric from her on Thursday.
She had her 14th double-double of the season — assisting 40 of Nebraska’s 54 kills and digging a career-high 20 balls. She didn’t stop there. She was involved in four blocks — near her career-high of five — including a thunderous solo stuff late in the first set that inched Nebraska closer to set point.
What was block queen Andi Jackson’s response in the moment? “I was so hype, are you kidding me?” Jackson said with a smile. “I couldn’t stop talking about it at the net. As the next play was starting, I was like, ‘Ah, Bergen, that was so good.
’” Reilly also had a late-match ace in the fourth set that helped get Nebraska within striking distance of match point. Was Nebraska’s offensive attack as potent as it normally is? No. A .
199 hitting percentage is not what Nebraska strives for. Twenty-one hitting errors — their most since the four-setter against Michigan — is not what Nebraska strives for. Nebraska was out-of-system a lot on Thursday with Minnesota hitting at Reilly quite frequently — hence the 20 digs.
And Nebraska struggled in those situations. The only players to hit over .300 were Jackson with nine kills and one error on 17 swings for .
471 and Reilly with six kills on 12 attempts for .500. Harper Murray, who led Nebraska with 13 kills and three errors on 40 swings, was close at .
250. Taylor Landfair, in her first match against her old team, had bright spots and low spots. She had 12 kills but also had nine errors on 45 swings for .
067. And Merritt Beason had seven kills with five errors on 34 swings. Nights like that happen.
Sometimes you hit balls out and make unforced errors, especially when you’re out-of-system as much as Nebraska was. But the slog isn’t going to get easier. “The end here, the margin for winning is getting narrower, and it’s harder to win,” coach John Cook said.
“Everybody’s fighting for something, and we’re playing really good teams. Part of that was Minnesota did a really good job, and sometimes you just have to win when it’s not pretty and everything’s going your way. We’ve kind of been used to that the last few matches where everything’s just kind of been going and we’ve been cruising a little bit.
But, they got us out of our comfort zone tonight. All-American libero Lexi Rodriguez finished the match against Minnesota with 16 digs — putting her at 1,747 for her career. The number to beat from Justine Wong-Orantes is 1,890.
That math works out to Rodriguez needing 143 digs to tie Wong-Orantes and 144 to pass. Nebraska has a possible 11 matches left — five regular season and a potential of up to six in the postseason. Assuming Nebraska advances to the national final, Rodriguez will have to average 13 digs per match to reach Wong-Orantes’ mark.
Not impossible, but not a given either. She has reached at least 13 digs in 11 matches this season — 16 against Minnesota, 14 at Oregon, 14 against Michigan, 22 at Ohio State, 15 at Illinois, 13 against USC, 20 against UCLA, 20 against Creighton, 15 against the Citadel, 18 against TCU and 15 against Kentucky. Get local news delivered to your inbox!.
