Nebraska’s outside hitters — and its defense — were impressive in a 25-12, 26-24, 25-18 win against No. 12 Oregon on Thursday in Eugene, Oregon.
The Huskers are off to a great start in a challenging November that will decide if they win the Big Ten title or not. Nebraska (23-1, 13-0 in conference play), has now won 12 straight sets, dating to the Michigan match last month.
Sophomore outside hitter Harper Murray led the Huskers with 14 kills, including a massive kill to win the extended second set. Murray had a .414 hitting percentage and also had 10 digs.
Junior outside hitter Taylor Landfair added 13 kills and hit .407. Landfair started fast with kills on five of her first seven attempts. She did a great job of mixing up her shots, with tips and power shots.
Nebraska’s defense was good again, holding Oregon to a .133 hitting percentage. Nebraska has held each of its past four opponents under .155.
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Freshman Olivia Mauch had two ace serves and served a 6-0 run in the third set to put the Ducks away for the final time.
Nebraska had four aces and no serving errors. It was the first time since Sept. 16, 2017, that Nebraska didn’t have a service error.
“Again our serve, block and defense did a really nice job,” coach John Cook said on the Huskers Radio Network.
It was a late night for fans back in Nebraska with a 9 p.m. start, but the Huskers' strong play — and winning that close second set — meant fans were still in bed by 11 p.m.
For the second straight match, No. 2 Nebraska coming to town helped an opponent set an attendance record, with Oregon getting 8,556. That’s about 1,000 more than its previous record.
Oregon ran much of its offense through star outside hitter Mimi Colyer — she had 52 of the team’s 120 hitting attempts — but Nebraska was up to the challenge.
Colyer had some impressive kills from both the back row and the net and finished with 13, but her .115 hitting percentage was well below her season average of .271. She took 33 more swings than any of her teammates.
The first set ended up lopsided but was actually tied at six. But then Nebraska won 10 of the next 12 rallies for a 17-8 lead. Nebraska had a .476 hitting percentage in the set and held Oregon to a negative hitting percentage.
The end of the second set was close, but Nebraska had the better finish, including two kills from Andi Jackson and an important kill from Landfair to win a really long rally. On its third set point, Murray ended it with a shot off the hands of the Oregon blockers.
“That was a big girl hit,” Cook said.
With her team-leading 14 digs, Lexi Rodriguez claimed sole possession of second place in school history with 1,720 career digs, passing Kayla Banwarth (1,706). Justine Wong-Orantes is the school record holder with 1,890.
Mia Tvrdy, a freshman from Papillion-La Vista, was in the starting lineup for Oregon at middle blocker.
When Nebraska was given its schedule from the league office this summer, the match at Oregon in Week 7 worried Cook. It followed a big match at Wisconsin the previous week. Also, Nebraska played last Sunday, and then had to play again Thursday after a long flight to the West Coast. And Oregon has some really good players.
But Nebraska’s players once again showed its coach they’re something special.
“I’m just really proud of our team for how hard they fought tonight, and how gritty they were,” Cook said.
Nebraska will play at Washington (18-5, 8-5 Big Ten on Saturday at 9:30 p.m. on Big Ten Network.
-- Brent C. Wagner
