Volleyball Nebraska 3 Rutgers 1 Recap

#4 Nebraska (6-0) defeats Rutgers (1-7) 22-25, 25-14, 25-14, 25-20

We saw multiple Nebraska line up changes in order to earn the four set win over Rutgers. Passing serve receive proved challenging and that led to Nicklin Hames running all over to set the offense. Poor passing coupled with the crafty Rutgers hitters using and abusing our block led to a hard fought match in New Jersey.

Riley Zuhn started the match on the right side but she had four errors and couldn’t get kills. Jazz Sweet came in during the second set and provided a positive spark. Sweet continued to play with positive touches but also had trouble producing kills. Jazz started the third and fourth set. Jazz starting left Zuhn available to sub in. Coach Cook put Zuhn in for Madi Kubik as a blocking sub in the third set. After one hitting error, Kubik came back in.

Kayla Caffey started set four as Callie Schwarzenbach only had 3 kills after 3 sets of play. Caffey played for the first three rotations and then Schwarzenbach came in the next time that position was in the front row. Schwarzenbach played the rest of the match. After the match Coach Cook said he wanted to see Caffey as a sub player but once she was in the match he saw that Caffey wasn’t warmed up so he switched back to Schwarzenbach.

Hames was a consistent player tonight. She not only ran all over to set but she played a ton of defense. She finished with 17 digs. She was second on the team with digs (Kenzie Knuckles had 20). There were so many digs because of long rallies and back and forth scoring with lots of lead changes.

While it is great Hames played such good defense that also means that someone else had to set when she dug. Many times that other person setting put the ball too tight to the net which led to a Rutgers block. The Huskers will work on off player setting this week before playing Minnesota.

There were many strong offensive performances tonight. Lauren Stivrins had 15 kills and hit .583. She was the most consistent weapon for NU. Kubik had 14 kills and hit .267. Sweet ended with 8 kills and hit .429. Lexi Sun had 15 kills but 8 errors for a .156 hitting percentage.

Nebraska is home next weekend against #5 Minnesota Friday night (8pm CST) and Sunday morning (11am CST).

Other Matches Today

#1 Wisconsin 3 Indiana 0 - 25-23, 25-11, 25-23

#3 Kentucky 3 Georgia 0 - 25-11, 25-15, 25-17

#5 Minnesota vs #8 PSU 7pm CST

#13 Purdue at #24 Michigan In progress

Michigan State at Maryland In progress

#10 Washington at #18 UCLA 5pm CST

#15 Stanford at Cal 7pm CST

#16 Missouri at Tennessee 5:30 CST