Nebraska Volleyball Sweeps Kansas in Spring Scrimmage

The Huskers hit .285 for the match, holding the Jayhawks to .214. NU added eight blocks and six aces.

Box score (sets 1-3)

With so many players seeing action and different lineups being used, there can be some difficulty gauging some of the performances. Still, here are a few takeaways from the match.

Harper Murray is a legitimate national player of the year candidate

Maybe a little early to begin the campaign, but Murray continues to make major offseason improvements. This time she added a jump serve. That new weapon resulted in an ace as she consistently kept the Jayhawk serve receive off balance.

For the match, Murray finished with five kills and five digs. With another way to impact matches this fall, the two-time All-American should be someone that makes all the preseason watch lists.

Middles dominate

No surprise here, but Andi Jackson and Rebekah Allick remain really good. The pair each had 11 kills and four blocks, hitting .556 and .524, respectively. Jackson had one of the best swings on a ball out of the back row the Devaney Center has ever seen and Allick added a service ace to her offensive production.

That back row attack from Jackson is something that Busboom Kelly is happy to have after seeing the talented middle dominate a practice drill.

"We're like, 'we should probably do that in a game'," Busboom Kelly said. "So we just started having her play right back when she serves and gave Bergen (Reilly) the green like to set her.

"That was really fun to see it work and it really worked. It wasn't just kind of worked."

Freshmen introduce themselves

A total of 13 Huskers saw time in the match, including all five freshman: Teraya Sigler, Keri Leimback, Ryan Hunter, Campbell Flynn, and Skyler Pierce.

Two that jumped out offensively were Sigler and Hunter. Sigler had six kills over two sets, hitting .556. Hunter tallied 11 kills and hit .563.

"Super aggressive for a freshman to come out there and swing away, and some of those out of system swings were pretty insane," Busboom Kelly said of Hunter. "I told her... 'your job is to block ball and kill balls and let's not worry about anything else' and she did that tonight."

Don't expect a 6-2, but the Huskers have two solid setters

The job remains Bergen Reilly's, but if something were to happen (knock on wood), the Huskers have a good one in the reigning High School Gatorade Player of the Year Campbell Flynn. Flynn ran the offense for the third and fourth sets, which were the best (.395) and worst (.156) hitting percentage sets for the Big Red. The true freshman had 23 assist and three digs.

Reilly orchestrated the offense for the first two sets. She finished with 19 assists, one kill, one service ace, and eight digs.

New libero in flux

Replacing the legend that was Lexi Rodriguez is no easy task, and it appears that the competition is ongoing.

Both Laney Choboy and Olivia Mauch spent time at the position Saturday, getting two sets each. Choboy finished with18 digs while Mauch had 12.

"Going in and out of being libero is not easy and their stats might not be easy when we look at them tomorrow morning, but I thought their play was very, very good," Busboom Kelly said. "It's one of the deepest groups of liberos I've ever coached."

What needs work

DBK was honest in her assessment of the match during postgame, noting that she would like to keep the middle attacking going next week but also clean up a couple other spots.

"If we serve tougher and can smooth out our blocking, those would be two big areas of improvement," Busboom Kelly said.

Next up

Nebraska heads west for another spring match. The Huskers will take on South Dakota State next Saturday at 2 p.m. CDT at Ord High School. The match will be broadcast on Nebraska Public Media and the Huskers Radio Network.

Nebraska Athletics Set Synopses

Set 1: Nebraska used a 4-0 run to take a 7-4 lead, keyed by Murray's jump serve. She had an ace, and Landfair and Jackson each had kills. Allick pounded two kills to help NU to an 11-6 lead, and kills by Murray and Jackson made it 15-11 at the media timeout. After Kansas cut it to 15-13, Jackson had a kill and Allick had a solo block to help NU back to an 18-13 lead. But the Jayhawks answered to get within 19-18 after a 5-1 spurt. Allick terminated to keep the Huskers in front, 20-18. Allick and Jackson posted back-to-back kills to make it 23-19, and Pierce and Jackson combined for a block for set point. The Huskers won 25-20. 

Set 2: NU got off to a hot start with kills by Allick and Murray. Freshman Ryan Hunter then had a kill and a block with Allick in her first collegiate action to make it 4-1. Murray and Jackson recorded kills to keep NU on top, 8-6, and Hunter tacked on two more kills for a 12-8 Husker advantage. Murray and Jackson put NU up 15-10 at the media break. Jackson smashed back-to-back kills for an 18-13 advantage, and Reilly served an ace before a kill by Allick made it 21-15. The Huskers closed out a 25-18 win to go up 2-0. 

Set 3: The Huskers fought to a 9-6 lead with Hunter posting three kills, Sigler two, and Choboy serving an ace. Landfair's second kill of the set and another by Sigler made it 11-7. Sigler tacked on another before Ryan followed suit for a 13-10 lead. But the Jayhawks answered with a 5-1 run to go ahead 15-14. Kansas then served long and Landfair tipped a kill to NU back in front. With the score tied 16-16, Allick posted a kill, and Hunter and Sigler stepped up once again for the Big Red to make it 19-17. Allick terminated again, and a block by Sigler and Jackson put the Huskers up 22-18. Hunter notched her ninth kill, and Jackson's 10th earned set point. NU won 25-21.

Set 4: Kansas came out strong, taking a 12-8 lead. Murray stepped up with two kills and a block with Jackson to help NU rally to tie the score at 12-12 with Choboy serving the 4-0 run. Grace Nelson answered with two kills for KU to put the Jayhawks back up 14-12, but Jackson combined with Flynn for a block and tallied a kill before a Mauch ace sparked the Huskers to a 19-15 lead. Kansas stormed back to tie the score at 20-20, but the Huskers were up to the task, scoring a 4-0 run with an ace by Keri Leimbach, a block by Allick and Hunter, and a kill by Murray. Another Murray kill ended the match, 25-22.

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