Wreck Hall: 3 Quick Sideouts from Nebraska's Domination of Penn State

Only three Penn State players recorded kills in the match, which lasted just 78 minutes. The brevity threw Fox for such a loop that it needed to play about 30 minutes of nearly uninterrupted commercials to meet their advertising obligations in the two-hour broadcast block.

Rebekah Allick backed it up

Nebraska didn’t seem afraid that anything they said this week would show up on Penn State’s bulletin board. Especially not when Rebekah Allick said on Wednesday she had “a grudge” against the Nittany Lions beating the Huskers in last year’s Final Four.

The storyline of the week became revenge. And Allick took it. The senior from Waverly is making a case for a first-team All-American season. Her team-high nine kills and .615 hitting percentage on Friday were the latest piece of evidence.

Asked by Fox’s Emily Ehman (we’ll promise to have you on “Volleyball State” again soon, Emily!) after the win, what her play said tonight, Allick pointed to the obvious.

“That I had a grudge, man!” she said. “When I was walking out tonight, I was telling myself, ‘this is why I want to play college sports.’ I love rivalries. I love good banter. I feel like it’s a playful environment. I feel like I showed that tonight. I’m not afraid to get a little spicy.”

With Allick, it seems more playful than vindictive. To her, rivalries are what make sports fun. But the captain clearly took it upon herself to make Nebraska’s newcomers understand the match-up’s history. 

After the match, Husker coach Dani Busboom Kelly said the team seemed locked in on their preparation all week.

“I’m not surprised we had that kind of a match tonight,” she said. 

And whether it was detonating overpasses or blasting shots down the line on the slide, Allick led the way in one of the most balanced, dominant wins against a Penn State team ever.

“People were just excited to throw hands, I guess,” Allick said. 

A virtuoso Bergen Reilly match

Through the first two sets on Friday, Nebraska was hitting .510. Nearly two-thirds of the Huskers’ attacks (61.2 percent) went down for kills.

No one’s smile was bigger than junior Bergen Reilly’s, who was masterful in running the NU offense in what was one of the best matches of her career.

She was aided by an outstanding performance from Nebraska’s serve receive, libero Olivia Mauch, defensive specialist Laney Choboy, and outside hitters Harper Murray and Taylor Landfair.  Aside from a couple of late, meaningless aces, Nebraska’s passers had the Huskers in system all night.

From there, it was in Reilly’s capable hands, which fired accurate balls to both pins as well as the back row all night, carving up a Penn State defense that never really seemed to have Nebraska measured.

Busboom Kelly said Reilly’s self-assurance was apparent early on. On two of the match’s first 10 rallies, Reilly eschewed setting a front-row veteran to set up back-row swings from freshman Teraya Sigler, who had just three kills in NU’s last four matches.

Sigler terminated both, coming on the heels of two early kills from freshman opposite Virginia Adriano. Busboom Kelly said it was a sign that Reilly wanted two new faces to feel involved in the match from the start.

“I thought her sets to Virginia were excellent. It just felt like she really showed confidence early,” Busboom Kelly said. “We get Teraya two swings early on the Bic (back-row attack), and she kills them. That’s a setter telling her team ‘I trust everybody. We’re going to win this one.’”

The eye-popping offensive numbers moved Nebraska’s hitting percentage to .325 on the season. And could put Reilly in line to win a third straight Big Ten Setter of the Year honor, which would tie her with former Wisconsin star Sydney Hilley.