Nebraska Volleyball Dominates Penn State in Lopsided Sweep

It was a historic night at Rec Hall on Friday, but for all the wrong reasons for Penn State. 

No. 1 Nebraska completely dominated the reigning national champions, earning a 25-6, 25-15, 25-13 sweep. 

The six points in the first set were the fewest scored by Penn State in a rally scoring set, which started in 2001. The previous low was nine points, achieved twice in 2022, at Nebraska and at Northwestern. The fewest points the Nittany Lions had scored at home were 11, which occurred against Nebraska in 2018 and Oregon State in 2012. The 34 points were also a program low for Penn State in the rally-scoring era. 

For the Huskers, they hit a season high of .437, while limiting PSU to -.114, which was the second-lowest by an NU opponent since 2001. The lowest was -.132 by Louisiana-Monroe (12-24-91) in 2013. The War Hawks failed to record a kill in the 3rd set and lost it 25-4. The straight-set win was the first for the Huskers at Rec Hall since Sept. 22, 2017. 

“I don’t care who you’re playing, when you win like that, if you feel like you’re playing great, that’s fun to be a part of,” NU coach Dani Busboom Kelly said.

Before the match, the Huskers discussed how they were focused on avenging their losses to the 16th-ranked Nittany Lions, who had defeated them twice last year, including in a five-set national semifinals matchup.

For Busboom Kelly, she knew her team was locked in from before the first serve. 

“I felt like all week we were (locked in), which it’s easy for me to say now that we came out playing so well, but I thought our prep was so good, and our team was very focused,” she said during a post-match interview on Fox. “I’m not surprised we had that kind of a match tonight.”

Junior setter Bergen Reilly tallied 26 assists, eight digs and three blocks, and set the tone with her distribution early on. After Penn State recorded the first two points of the match, Reilly set up freshman opposite Virginia Adriano for back-to-back kills and a back-row kill from freshman Teraya Sigler.

Nebraska never trailed the rest of the match. 

“I thought her sets to Virginia were excellent,” Busboom Kelly said about Reilly. “She was really showing confidence early when we got Teraya two swings early on the BIC, and she kills them. That’s a setter telling her team, ‘I trust everybody. We’re going to win this one.’”

Reilly helped Nebraska (13-0, 3-0) finish with a balanced offensive performance. Senior middle blocker Rebekah Allick led the way with nine kills at a .615 clip and four blocks.

Adriano added eight kills on 11 swings, while Andi Jackson and Harper Murray finished with six kills each. Taylor Landfair put up five kills on nine swings while Sigler recorded three kills. 

Allick spoke before the match about how she had a grudge against Penn State for the losses they suffered last year. She backed that play up with a solid game, impacting the match on both offense and defense. 

“This is why I want to play college sports. I love rivalries. I love good banter,” Allick said. “It’s a playful environment, and I feel like I showed that tonight. I’m not afraid to get a little spicy.”

Nebraska also put the pressure on the Nittany Lions from the service line. 

After Penn State recorded a side out on Sigler’s opening serve of the match, every other Husker recorded at least four points in a row. Olivia Mauch had a 5-0 run, Adriano served a 6-0 run, Murray had 4 points in a row, Jackson recorded an ace as part of a 5-0 run, and then Reilly closed out the set with the final five points of the set.

Penn State (7-6, 1-2) never found anything that worked offensively. They hit negative in two of the three sets and were only barely in the black in the second, with seven kills and six errors. 

Kennedy Martin recorded 11 of Penn State’s 16 kills in the match. Only two other players notched a kill. Maggie Mendelson tallied three kills, and Emmi Sellman finished with two kills and seven errors on 19 attacks. 

The rest of the team combined for zero kills, 13 errors on 30 attacks. Caroline Jurevicius started at outside hitter, but she didn’t have a kill on five swings and was replaced in the second set by Alexis Ewing, who failed to terminate on her eight attacks. 

Mauch led the defensive effort with 10 digs as the Huskers outblocked PSU 9-5. 

Busboom Kelly said Nebraska was well-prepared and forced the Nittany Lions into uncomfortable shots. 

“They just looked confident. Our passing was very good from the start, and this is a very hard place to pass,” she said. “On top of that, that is a very good serving team, and when we handled the first few tough serves, it was like, ‘Okay, this can be fun.’”

Nebraska is back in action Saturday at Rutgers, which defeated Maryland in four sets on Friday night. 

However, before the Huskers turn their attention to the Scarlet Knights, they will enjoy Friday night’s win for a bit. 

“I’ve been waiting for this team to celebrate some little things,” Busboom Kelly said. “Tonight, that wasn’t this really tough match we played. Normally, we wouldn’t be celebrating, but they celebrated that. It just felt like a little bit of swag coming in, where maybe we’ve been lacking a little swag the last few games.”

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