Nebraska volleyball stayed perfect with a sweep of Kansas State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Here are three quick sideouts.
Even the country’s top offense can have poor nights
Nebraska, owners of the nation’s best attacking percentage (.356 coming into Saturday), had to win gritty, unable to create long stretches of pretty, against Kansas State.
The Huskers’ .253 hitting mark was their lowest since hitting .250 against Creighton on September 16 and was NU’s fourth-lowest of the season.
Nebraska middle blocker Andi Jackson had 10 kills and hit .533 against Kansas State, raising her school-record season attack percentage to .483. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN
Credit some tough serving by Kansas State, which only landed two aces, but constantly stressed Nebraska’s passers and sent Husker setter Bergen Reilly running for the second contact, which seemed to affect her location at times.
“K-State served great,” freshman Teraya Sigler said. “And I think I give credit to all of our (defensive specialists) and liberos, like Laney (Choboy), Liv (Mauch), Harper (Murray), Tay (Landfair), like, I just think we were fighting the balls up. That goes back to our training. All the reps that we go into practice and all the hard work that we go in really getting that muscle memory. Because when it comes down to it, this time of year is all muscle memory and fundamentals.”
Nebraska’s pins struggled for stretches with Reilly unable to get them into one-on-one match-ups because of the service pressure. Murray put away 10 kills, but hit .129 thanks to six errors.
Landfair’s eight kills came on 18 swings as she often tried off-speed attacks instead of full swings. And starting opposite hitter Virginia Adriano was removed for the latter half of Game 2 after getting blocked three times early in the match.
Nebraska outside hitter Taylor Landfair jousts at the net against Kansas State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN
Still, K-State only posed a serious threat in Game 2. Nebraska got out of the opening weekend without dropping a set, while several other title hopefuls had their nervous moments in the first two rounds.
Nebraska “yo-yo’d” Kansas State from the service line
The Huskers brought service pressure of their own Saturday, with five different Huskers landing an ace.
Nebraska targeted Kansas State libero Symone Sims 23 times and focused its serves primarily to Zone 1 (right back) and Zone 6 (middle back). Several Huskers caused K-State fits with a sharp-dropping serve that barely cleared the net before diving to the floor like a baseball slider.
Nebraska DS Laney Choboy served two of the Huskers’ seven aces against Kansas State. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN
“It’s called a yo-yo in our gym,” said junior libero Laney Choboy. “So it’s basically just like you do, like a full swing, but you like, I don’t know how to describe it. You hit it lighter, so that it is on the same trajectory as your deep one. But then, it drops down. We work on it a lot in practice. We have target serving every single day.”
Nebraska totaled seven aces and scored 55 percent of the times they had the serve. Sigler, who had an ace, said NU’s tough serving allowed the Huskers to build momentum.
“When you get a free ball or an easy serve in volleyball, obviously, it’s like, alright, let’s terminate. And that’s how, if we give an easy ball to any opponent, they’re gonna want to shove it down our throats. And so it’s just like, how can we go there and mess teams up and get them out of system?”
Every team going forward is good
Look around the bracket at the second round scores. Not a lot of blowouts.
Wisconsin, resurgent with the return of Charlie Fuerbringer and playing well above its No. 3 seed, is rolling. Texas hasn’t been challenged in wins over Florida A&M and Penn State, but set scores are tightening across the tournament.
Stanford dropped a set – and looked bad doing it – to Utah Valley in the first round. Kentucky, the second-best team in the country, dropped a set to a talented but spotty UCLA team in Round 2.
Nebraska players celebrate a kill by outside hitter Harper Murray against Kansas State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. | Kenny Larabee, KLIN
Every other team headed to Lincoln for next weekend’s regional round dropped sets this weekend. Kansas, which will face Nebraska in the Sweet 16 on Friday, lost a set to Miami (who gave Flomarie Heredia Colon 80 swings!). Louisville hit over .400 but had to hold off Marquette in five, and Texas A&M rallied from down 24-21 in Game 4 Saturday to avoid going to a fifth set with TCU.
Every team going forward has flaws, including the Huskers. But every team is also capable of beating Nebraska if it struggles to pass. NU relies on its middles more than any team in the country, but needs good passing to get the ball to them.
Nebraska’s pin hitters took 65 combined swings against Kansas State, terminating just 27 of them (42 percent). The middles got 28 attempts.
Just like when the Huskers dropped a set at UCLA, Kansas State showed a blueprint of how Nebraska can be pushed. And every remaining team – all better than the Wildcats – has the pin hitters to capitalize on a rough stretch.
Buckle up. The final two weeks of the season are here.
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