No. 1 Huskers Breeze by Bruins

No. 1 Nebraska cruised to a 25-19, 25-11, 25-16 sweep of UCLA at John Cook Arena at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on Thursday night.

 

Nebraska (20-0, 9-0 Big Ten) hit .380 as a team while limiting UCLA (15-5, 6-3 Big Ten) to a .036 hitting percentage to record the Huskers’ 10th 20-0 start in program history. 

 

The Huskers extended their regular-season win streak to 51 matches, which ranks second all-time in program history in the NCAA era.

 

Additionally, Nebraska won its 62nd consecutive regular-season home match, including the 60th straight regular-season home match at John Cook Arena at the Bob Devaney Sports Center.

 

Andi Jackson paced the Huskers with 11 kills on .625 hitting for her 36th career match of at least 10 kills and had six blocks and three digs.

 

Virginia Adriano posted 10 kills on .333 hitting, followed by Harper Murray with nine kills, five digs and three blocks. Teraya Sigler chipped in eight kills on .471 hitting with five digs, and Manaia Ogbechie added four kills and three blocks.

Bergen Reilly picked up her 48th career double-double with 39 assists, 10 digs, four blocks and three kills on the night. Laney Choboy and Olivia Mauch recorded 13 and 10 digs, respectively.

Set 1: Nebraska rallied from an early three-point deficit to take the first set from UCLA, 25-19. The Huskers jumped out to a 4-1 lead, but the Bruins answered with a 3-0 run to tie the set at four. UCLA reeled off four straight points to grab its largest lead at 9-6. Trailing 10-7, Nebraska took control with Sigler at the service line, as UCLA committed three straight attack errors during a 4-0 spurt that gave the Huskers an 11-10 lead. After the Bruins tied it at 11, Nebraska scored three straight points, capped by a Murray and Jackson block assist, and never trailed again, building a 20-16 cushion that forced a UCLA timeout. Murray and Adriano led the way with five kills apiece, and Adriano accounted for three of the Huskers’ final five points, including the kill that brought up set point. Sigler added four kills as Nebraska totaled 17 kills and two blocks and took advantage of six UCLA errors in the set.

Set 2: The Huskers dominated the second set, cruising to a 25-11 victory. After the Bruins grabbed a brief 2-1 lead, the Big Red scored four straight with Mauch serving, highlighted by back-to-back blocks, and never trailed again. Choboy then served five consecutive points during a 6-0 run that pushed the lead to 11-3, with Jackson recording three kills and a block in the spurt. Jackson was a force at the net all set, finishing with five kills without an error and a hand in all four of Nebraska’s blocks. The Huskers kept pulling away behind contributions from behind contributions from Ogbechie, Skyler Pierce and Kenna Cogill, and Murray ended the set with a service ace. The Big Red totaled 12 kills, four blocks and an ace, while UCLA had more attack errors than kills with a 10-8 margin in errors to kills.

Set 3: Nebraska completed the sweep with a 25-16 win in the third set, leading from the first point to the last. Ogbechie and Murray opened with a block, and the Huskers built a 3-0 lead before back-to-back Reilly and Ogbechie blocks made it 10-3 and forced a UCLA timeout. Adriano posted consecutive kills with Sigler serving to push the lead to 14-6, and the Bruins never got closer than six the rest of the way. Cogill came off the bench to put down a pair of kills that brought up set point at 24-15. Jackson put an end to the match with her 11th kill of the night.

No. 1 Nebraska remains at home, as the Big Red welcome USC to John Cook Arena at the Bob Devaney Sports Center for its annual “Pink Match” on Saturday, Oct. 24. First serve between the Huskers and Trojans is set for 8 p.m. on BTN.