#4 Nebraska Volleyball Sweeps Long Beach State

Tyler Hildebrand and Long Beach State came to Lincoln to see if they could knock off another Top 5 team early this season. It wasn’t meant to be as #4 Nebraska got the sweep 25-18, 25-8, 25-21.

Defense was the name of the game for the Huskers once again. This is no surprise as Nebraska leads the nation in opponents hitting percentage. They held The Beach to .055 in the match. Through the first two sets their hitting percentage was in the negatives.

Nebraska had 9 blocks on the night. Bekka Allick and Andi Jackson led the Husker block with 4 a piece. Bergan Reilly and Merritt Beason led the Huskers in digs with 8 each.

The Husker offense ended the match hitting a solid .393. Harper Murray led the way with 10 kills, Merritt Beason had 9, 6 of them in the first set, and Andi Jackson had 8. Four Huskers, Andi Jackson, Ally Batenhorst, Bergan Reilly, and Maggie Mendelson, hit above .500.

It wasn’t the best serving night for Nebraska as they missed a total of 10 serves. Six of those misses came in the first set.

Kennedi Orr took the court for the first time this season as she came in to serve and also got 4 digs on the day. In fact, eleven of the fourteen Huskers on the roster played tonight and they all made their presence known.

Long Beach State seemed to really come alive in the third set as they pulled ahead in the middle of the match and battle back to within one towards the end. Nebraska was struggling a little bit with the block and looked a little discombobulated for some of the time in the third. The Huskers were able to pull it together end the night with Kills by Jackson and Batenhorst and a Beason ace serve.

Elise Agi led the attack for The Beach with 7 kills. Setter Zayna Meyer had 16 assists and 5 kills of her own. She won several joists at the net and is a strong competitor.

The Huskers will face their toughest test of the season as they head to California to take on #5 Stanford on Tuesday at 8 p.m.