Courtesy Nebraska Athletics
No. 1 Nebraska volleyball lost a set after winning 26 in a row but ultimately won 25-13, 20-25, 25-19, 25-14 over No. 13 Purdue Saturday at John Cook Arena. The Cornhuskers hadn’t lost a set in Big Ten play until Saturday and had swept eight straight foes before dropping the second to the Boilermakers.
Teraya Sigler led Nebraska (19-0, 8-0 Big Ten) with 15 kills, one of four Huskers with double-digit kills. Harper Murray tallied 13 kills and eight digs despite hitting just .186. Virginia Adriano notched 11 kills and four blocks. Manaia Ogbechie had 10 kills with a surgical .714 hitting percentage while also tallying five blocks. Andi Jackson led NU with six blocks while tallying seven kills. Bergen Reilly piled up 44 set assists while adding five blocks. Addy Tindall led the Boilermakers (11-6, 4-4) with 16 kills, but no other Purdue player was in double-digits.
Nebraska bolted out to an early 7-3 lead and opened a 14-5 advantage less than 20 rallies into the match. Purdue cut the Huskers’ lead to six, 19-13, but then Nebraska ran the last six points to finish the first set. In the second, neither team held a lead larger than three until the Boilermakers ran six in a row to open an 18-11 lead. The Huskers pulled to within two twice, 19-17 and 21-19, but Purdue ran four of the final five points to capture the set, just the fourth Nebraska has lost this year.
The third set started competitively, with the Boilermakers leading, 8-7, before the Huskers pushed ahead with a three-point run, 10-8. Nebraska held the lead but couldn’t pull away from Purdue until the Huskers finished the set by winning six of the final seven points, three coming off Sigler kills. The fourth set was close early tied at eight, but then Nebraska bolted on a nine-point run with Olivia Mauch serving, opening a 17-8 lead. Murray tallied four straight kills during the run, including three in a row to spark it. The Boilermakers never drew closer than seven the rest of the set, and a Purdue service error finished off the match for the Huskers.
Nebraska now prepares to take on UCLA Thursday at John Cook Arena. First serve is scheduled for 6 p.m., with pregame coverage beginning at 5 p.m. on KLIN and B-107.3.