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Just like last season, the second-ranked Huskers have won a lot — they're 22-1 this season and are on a 19-match winning streak. But they’ve done it a little differently than last season when the Huskers had the No. 1 defense in the country.

This season, the Huskers had been winning most consistently on the strength of balanced offense, serve-receive and serving. Entering the season's final two months, Nebraska’s defense could be trending up and make the Huskers an even more difficult to beat.

Nebraska’s three-set sweep of No. 7 Wisconsin last week was fueled by the defense. Nebraska had 10 blocks and 43 digs to hold Wisconsin to a .094 hitting percentage, the Badgers’ worst match hitting in eight years.

This season, Nebraska hasn’t had as many matches where it reached the elite mark of holding an opponent under .100 hitting but did it against one of the most powerful offenses in the sport. And then the Huskers did it again in the next match by also holding Northwestern under .100 hitting.

Sarah Franklin, the reigning national player of the year, had 16 kills but was the Badgers’ only major producer as Nebraska’s blockers wore Wisconsin’s hitters down as the match went on. Anna Smrek had eight kills, but also 10 errors, for a negative hitting percentage.

“A big thing for us was obviously slowing Sarah Franklin down,” Nebraska senior Merritt Beason said. “Obviously she’s a great attacker. So her and Anna Smrek were kind of our two people that if we knew we slowed them down we had a really good chance of winning.”

It takes all six players on the court to slow down teams like Wisconsin, and Nebraska got that.

“Just defensively, blockers did a really good job of being in the positions that we supposed to be in and getting (block) touches,” Beason said. “We didn’t necessarily stuff every single ball, but we were in the right places and slowing them down. For us that was huge. And then when we did touch those balls the defense behind us picked them up and we were able to convert them, and that was honestly the difference in that match.”

Nebraska’s players executed the defensive game plan really well against the Badgers, coach John Cook said. That means recognizing from where the Badgers were most likely to attack from based on the players at the net and how good the pass was.

“We did a really good job of containing Franklin,” Cook said. “I mean, when they play well she has big nights. She had a big night against us last year. and then I don’t think their middles did very well.”

The win meant Nebraska senior Lexi Rodriguez beat Wisconsin for just the second time in her career and the first time in Madison.

“I think it was just a lot of excitement and joy,” Rodriguez said. “I mean, I’ve only ever lost there. So to do it our senior year and get the job done and have a sweep it was pretty cool. I was super-proud of us to go in there in a tough environment and a place that we historically lose at and to execute the way we did I think is huge props to the whole program.”

Nebraska ranks 22nd in the country for defense, with an opponent hitting percentage average of .163. That’s a move up from No. 30 earlier in the season. Pittsburgh ranks No. 1 at .112.

With a veteran team, Nebraska scheduled tougher in the nonconference season, and that's impacted Nebraska’s spot in the defense rankings. Nebraska is 6-0 against top-10 teams this season, which is the most top-10 wins in a regular season in school history.

But the Huskers have also had some bad matches on defense, including Purdue hitting .311 against the Huskers in Lincoln, which was crushing to Cook.

In some matches, opponents were able to get too many easy kills by hitting off Nebraska’s blockers.

The Huskers are on the move back up the rankings and lead the Big Ten in defense.

“I think our whole staff and whole team we definitely take a lot of pride in our defense,” Rodriguez said. “It’s a team effort, so it takes every single person and all of the staff for preparing us. It’s definitely nice to see it start to pay off again.”

Pro Ducks

Nebraska’s challenging conference schedule continues with its first trip to the West Coast for Big Ten play. Nebraska plays at No. 12 Oregon on Thursday night, and then at Washington on Saturday.

Oregon’s success is impressive considering it graduated seven players from last season, each of which had offers to play professional volleyball.

Oregon coach Matt Ulmer mentioned that this summer at Big Ten media days. That will be something else to monitor going forward now with more professional opportunities in the U.S, including the Pro Volleyball Federation and League One Volleyball.

There were 11 former Ducks on Pro Volleyball Federation opening-day rosters including six — Hannah Pukis, Georgia Murphy, Gabby Gonzales, Morgan Lewis, Kara McGhee and Karson Bacon — that played on last year’s team.

In addition, Oregon alum Brooke Nuneviller helped lead Omaha to the inaugural league title.

Scoreboard watching

In a match that could have significant implications on the Big Ten title race, No. 3 Penn State plays at No. 7 Wisconsin on Saturday. The 2:30 pm. match is on NBC.

With four weeks to go, Nebraska and Penn State are tied at the top of the Big Ten standings at 12-0. Wisconsin is in third place at 10-2.

Stunning results at Texas

Defending national champion Texas will still probably be a team that the top teams don’t want to be matched up against in the NCAA Tournament because of its talented roster, but right now it’s stunning to look at the Longhorns’ schedule and see they had lost three straight matches entering Wednesday’s match against Mississippi State.

Not only that, but they were three straight home losses, coming against Texas A&M, Missouri and Oklahoma. It was the first time since 2006 that Texas had lost back-to-back conference matches.

And that’s come even with the Texas' roster still having Final Four MVP Madisen Skinner, setter Ella Swindle, libero Emma Halter and serving specialist Keonilei Akana from the national championship team.

The Longhorns had a 12-6 record and dropped to No. 15 in the coaches' poll.