Nebraska Outlasts Creighton in a Five set thriller in Front of the Greatest Fans

Nebraska 3 vs Creighton 2- 25-18 , 25-23, 25-27, 17-25, 15-9

The crowd showed up and so did Creighton and Nebraska. There were 15,797 fans in CHI Health Center tonight, an all time regular season NCAA record. Way to go Nebraska!

Nebraska ran the two setter offense once again, starting Nicklin Hames and Anni Evans. The team hit .244 for the match, overall, which is lower than previous matches. However, Creighton is the best team they have faced thus far.

Whitney Lauenstein was off the charts tonight and especially so in the first two sets. She hit over the block. She hit around the block. She hit through the block. There was no answer for her offense. Lauenstein earned 25 kills on 52 attempts and hit .385 for the match. It felt like Nebraska set a challenge; ‘we’ll stop setting her once you figure out how to dig or block her’. Creighton never stopped her so NU just kept setting her.

The best play of the match happened in the third set. I teared up a bit at the awesome play at 20-19. Huskers played defense with a ton of hustle. The play culminated with a one arm dig by Lexi Rodriguez, Kaitlyn Hord saves that ball out of the net and Madi Kubik passed it over. Creighton built the attack and Hord makes a monster block that falls on Creighton’s side. So much effort, teamwork and skill. Oh volleyball is a wonderful sport!

Later in the match there was another stand out play. Madi Kubik gave Hayden Kubik a backwards bump set from near the bench. Hayden took a full approach and swung away to earn a sister to sister kill. Hayden came in the match tonight part way through the 1st set for Ally Batenhorst. Batenhorst was bothered by the abdominal injury she has had for a while now.

Lindsay Krause came to life in the 5th set. She was the go to hitter for Evans and produced four kills in set five alone. Overall she had 16 kills and hit .227 for the match. She was quiet and unproductive early. She was visibly frustrated with her hitting errors early in the match. She seems to be more comfortable on the left side hitting

Defense was amazing on both sides of the court. As a team Nebraska finished with 93 digs and Creighton 89. Early in the match Rodriguez and Kenzie Knuckles were flying everywhere and digging anything close to them. Later in the match Hames and Evans kept plays alive by staying low to the floor and moving their feet forward to dig.

Bekka Allick earn some digs while she was in to serve. This freshman middle blocker finished with four digs!! Oh and she did a good job at playing middle too, with nine kills and three blocks.

Next up for Nebraska is Long Beach State at home on Saturday September 10th at 3 pm. Callie Schwarzenbach and Tyler Hildebrand return to Nebraska with their 4-1 LBS squad.