The schedule the Nebraska volleyball team was assigned by the Big Ten Conference for this week was challenging with two road matches in a span of about 23 hours.
The bright side to the schedule was the plane with the Huskers should be home by about 8 p.m. on Saturday night, and Nebraska has two more wins than when it left home.
Nebraska earned blowout sweeps in both matches, at Michigan State on Friday and Ohio State on Saturday, and extended its winning streak to 15.
Nebraska had it all on Saturday -- offense, defense and serving – in a 25-18, 25-18, 25-16 win in Columbus, Ohio. Nebraska had a .369 hitting percentage and held Ohio State to .144.
This weekend Nebraska won twice, played well and stayed tied for first place in the Big Ten at 8-0.
“Ohio State is not in the top half of the Big Ten, but they’re still really good,†coach John Cook said on the Huskers Radio Network. “You saw last night Ohio State should have beat Penn State. And Michigan State is better than their record, especially at home. So you got to bring it, and I thought our team did a really good job both nights.â€
Nebraska was better than Ohio State in kills (48-37), blocks (9-3) and digs (58-37).
Harper Murray led the Huskers with 14 kills. Merritt Beason had a great all-around match with 13 kills on .345 hitting, six blocks and one ace serve.
Taylor Landfair got the start again and had seven kills on .235 hitting. Setter Bergen Reilly had 39 set assists, 11 digs and two kills.
All-American libero Lexi Rodriguez had a season-high 22 digs – a big number for a three-set match.
“She didn’t play very well (Friday), and she heard about it,†Cook said. “She said she was going to play great today. And I think she was fired up to go against (Emily Londot and Emmi Sellman). I think she was just fired up to dig those guys.â€
Nebraska freshman defensive specialist Olivia Mauch had two ace serves, and the Bennington graduate served a 6-0 run in the second set. She also had a career-best 10 digs.
The match was played in the afternoon to be on national TV. It was the first-ever college volleyball match on NBC and marked the seventh different TV network Nebraska has had matches on already this season.
Ohio State (8-10, 1-7 Big Ten) had it tough, playing soon after it lost a five-set match against Penn State late Friday, and the fatigue showed in the third set Saturday when Nebraska led the set 10-1.
Just like normal, many of Ohio State’s sets went to Londot. She had 16 kills on 51 attempts with a .245 hitting percentage.
“It was just weird because they were setting the same player, and we couldn’t stop her,†Cook said. “But we were siding out great, so we were able to answer back.â€
In the first set, Nebraska briefly trailed, but then blasted off by winning six straight points for a 12-7 lead, the last point being an ace serve by Beason.
Murray helped get Nebraska off to a great start with kills on five of her seven hitting attempts in the first set.