LINCOLN—It had the makings of a classic trap game.
The Huskers were coming off an emotional road trip. They were leaving for another away match against a ranked opponent the following day. NU was breaking in a new TeraFlex court and the fans were participating in a stripe out. Not to mention, several players attended a Tate McRae concert in Omaha on Thursday night.
Distractions aside, the top-ranked Huskers took care of business with a 25-14, 15-18, 25-16 straight-set victory over Washington Friday night at John Cook Arena. The match lasted just 81 minutes as there were only two ties all night — 1-1 in the first set and 3-3 in the second.
“We handled it really well. Washington came out and made us earn our points, and we stayed really steady,” NU coach Dani Busboom Kelly said. “Even though it wasn’t the absolute cleanest game we played, I thought it was one of our better games, just the aggressiveness, the serving, the passing, everything was just really good.”
Huskers>Huskies 🧹 pic.twitter.com/oUYkbfugsT
— Nebraska Volleyball (@HuskerVB) October 11, 2025
The Huskers (15-0, 5-0) set the tone from the service line. Washington struggled to handle NU’s serves as it gave up two aces and spent most of the time out of system, and jumped out to a 10-4 lead and wasn’t threatened the rest of the way.
Washington (7-8, 2-3) finished with a .147 hitting percentage, its second-lowest of the season. (Only a .143 rate against Colorado State was worse.) Kierstyn Barton led the Huskies with nine kills.
For the match, Nebraska finished with six aces and just one error. It was the second time this season that it finished with more aces than errors, the only other time coming against California (6 aces, 5 errors).
“When teams can’t pass, it’s a lot easier to play defense,” Murray said. “I think that’s exactly what we did to them. We got them out of system a lot, and worked on serving our targets and serving certain areas, certain areas. So like I said, it’s just easier to play volleyball and play defense when teams are out of system.”
The Huskers hit .307 as Bergen Reilly set a balanced offense with 34 assists. Every front-row attacker finished with at least seven kills. Four players attempted at least 20 attacks, while Andi Jackson wasn’t far behind with 17.
Feeling sweep! 🤗 pic.twitter.com/wq334TwP6V
— Nebraska Volleyball (@HuskerVB) October 11, 2025
Murray, who called the Tate McRae concert “awesome” and “fire,” delivered a solid performance of her own with a match-high 12 kills on 27 swings and a .407 hitting percentage.
Busboom Kelly said she didn’t know about the concert outing until she saw the social media posts. She wants her players to enjoy fun events, especially when concerts come through Lincoln or Omaha, but was glad they were locked in for the match.
“I’m glad they went, enjoyed it,” Busboom Kelly said. “I do trust that they enjoyed it and made it back as quick as they could and got enough rest. Harper, she hit over .400, so clearly it didn’t affect her too much.”
Jackson finished with 10 kills at a .562 clip, while Virginia Adriano added nine kills. Rebekah Allick put up seven kills and eight blocks, and Landfair also tallied seven kills.
The second set was more of a slugfest, and the teams battled through long rallies. After tallying 22 digs in the first set, they combined for 43 in the second. Mauch, who recorded back-to-back kills early in the third set, led NU with 12 digs. Huskies libero Zoria Heard recorded 18 digs, while setter Alexi Haury had 11.
Nebraska will be back in action in short order, leaving for Purdue on Saturday morning in advance of the match on Sunday at noon. The Boilermakers have won their last nine sets after a reverse sweep against No. 24 UCLA before sweeping No. 17 USC and Ohio State. Purdue features reigning National Player of the Year Kenna Wollard, who is averaging 4.76 kills per set.
“They’re a great team, so we’re really excited. We’re fired up to go and play,” Jackson said. “We’re going to rest tonight, before a quick turnaround tomorrow.”
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