#3 Nebraska Volleyball Executes Match Plan in a Three Set Sweep of Michigan State

Nebraska 3 vs Michigan State 0 - 25-18, 25-23, 25-9

Nebraska executed the match plan to a high level against Michigan State tonight. The blocking scheme worked to slow down Spartan outside hitter Aliyah Moore, holding her to just .037 with 7 kills and 6 errors.

The block slowed down the whole Spartan team. They hit .031 for the match. When MSU came to Devaney they hit .171 for the match. The difference in those two numbers is the quality of the Nebraska block, and good sign of progress in this area.

Serving was improved tonight compared to the last meeting with MSU, as well. Nebraska had 5 service aces and 7 service errors. Nebraska also caused a lot of trouble for the Spartan passers with some tough serves that don’t show up on the stat line but disrupted the MSU offense.

The Husker servers drove their serves deep and high at the receiver’s shoulders. This is a tough ball to pass. First, as a passer, you have to decide if the serve is in or out, and then once you’ve decided on that you have the turn your shoulders to get your passing platform in position to receive the pass.

Michigan State returned this tough serving favor in the second set. They served deep high balls at our passers and caused passing errors for Nebraska. Huskers had 5 serve receive errors for the match which is the most they have had all season in a match.

Despite the periods of poor passing, Nebraska passed well enough to set the middle hitters tonight. The set distribution between hitters was as close to the match plan as we have seen all season. Bekka Allick had 11 attempts with 8 kills. Kaitlyn Hord had 10 attempts and 6 kills.

As a team, Nebraska hit .358. This is good execution by the hitters and great set distribution and location for the setters.

Nebraska drives the 64 miles from East Lansing to Ann Arbor to take on U of Michigan on Saturday at 6 pm central time. Michigan entered the top 25 this week at #24 after beating #9 Penn State and taking #6 Ohio State to four sets. Michigan plays #11 Minnesota on Friday before welcoming Nebraska to the Chrisler Center.