The No. 11 Nebraska volleyball team used a strong defensive and blocking effort to power past Maryland 3-0 (25-11, 26-24, 25-18) Friday night at the Devaney Center. With the win, the Huskers improved to 18-6 (12-3 Big Ten), while the Terrapins dropped to 18-9 (6-9) after their third straight loss.
As a team, the Huskers set a school record for digs in a three-set match in the rally-scoring era with 78 scoops on the night.
Madi Kubik led the Huskers in kills for the 15th straight match, totaling 14 kills with seven digs, four blocks and an ace.
Lauren Stivrins led the match with a season-high-tying seven blocks and had seven kills on .583 hitting with no attack errors.
Nicklin Hames posted her 16th double-double off 31 assists and 21 digs. She was one of four Huskers to finish with a double-figure dig performance, joining Lexi Rodriguez (22), Keonilei Akana (11) and Kenzie Knuckles (10). Knuckles also collected five kills on six errorless swings from the back row for an .833 efficiency. Rodriguez added five assists and an ace.
Lexi Sun and Whitney Lauenstein chipped in six kills and three blocks apiece for the match. Kayla Caffey matched them with three more stops.
Nebraska had the advantage in attack percentage (.170 – .000), kills (43-25), assists (38-21), digs (78-64) and blocks (11-9). Each team finished with two service aces.
Maryland was led by nine kills from Sam Csire. The Terps, who lead the country in blocking, got five blocks from Laila Ricks and four more from both Hannah Thompson and Rainelle Jones.
Set 1
NU trailed just once – down 3-2 — but rallied with a 5-0 run off three straight Terp attack errors, a block from Stivrins and Lindsay Krause, and a Rodriguez ace. A combined four kills between Stivrins and Knuckles, plus two more Maryland attacking miscues then powered a 6-0 stretch for a 13-5 Husker advantage. Kubik terminated on back-to-back rallies before a Terrapin timeout, and she added an ace out of the break to push it to 16-6.
The Huskers doubled up Maryland at 20-10 after two more Terp errors. Four late kills between Kubik and Krause helped them close it out on a 5-0 run for a 25-11 set win.
Maryland found itself error-prone in the first set, committing 10 attacking miscues, two serving errors and two reception errors. The Terps had seven attack errors in the first 21 rallies of the night. NU hit .167 but limited the Terps to -.139. Kubik had five kills to lead the way for the Huskers.
Set 2
It was Maryland who led early in set two, going up 7-4 with the help of three kills from Csire. The Huskers drew within one at 7-6 on a Stivrins/Lauenstein block and a Kubik kill, but UMD got it back out to a 10-6 lead before an NU timeout.
The Huskers again got within one at 10-9 but still couldn’t get over the hump. They cut it to one once more at 18-17 when Stivrins put down back-to-back kills, then twice again up to 21-20. Kills by Sun and Kubik tied it, but Maryland ended a long rally with a Ricks kill and prompted a timeout with the Huskers down 22-21.
UMD got it to set point at 24-21, but NU collected itself and rattled off a 5-0 run to fend off the Terps. A Kubik/Stivrins block, followed by a kill from Lauenstein, tied it at 24-24, and a Lauenstein/Stivrins block gave the Huskers their first lead since the first point of the set. Out of a timeout, an errant Maryland swing gave NU the set, 26-24.
Nebraska hit .186 to Maryland’s .091. Kubik had six kills, and Stivrins added four blocks. Rodriguez accounted for 12 digs.
Set 3
UMD again assumed an early 4-0 edge after three Husker hitting errors. The Huskers tied it twice at 5-5 and 6-6 before taking their first lead on a Kubik/Stivrins block. Stivrins then added a kill on a slide attack.
NU held a narrow advantage until a 7-1 run capped with kills from Caffey and Knuckles and a Kubik solo stop put them in control, 17-10. The Huskers put it away at the end with a Sun/Caffey block and a Kubik kill to seal the sweep at 25-18.
Noting Tonight’s Match
-Tonight marked NU’s 12th sweep of the year and eighth at home.
-Nebraska leads the all-time series with Maryland 16-0, including 14-0 in the John Cook era. The Huskers have swept eight of the last nine matches.
-The Huskers have a 10-0 advantage over Maryland in Lincoln, including 8-0 at the Devaney Center.
-NU’s 78 digs bested the previous school record set twice in the rally-scoring era for digs in a three-set match (72 vs. Texas A&M, Sept. 25, 2004; 72 vs. Kansas State, Oct. 4, 2006).
-Tonight was Nebraska’s eighth match with at least 10 blocks as a team.
Up Next
Nebraska visits Indiana on Sunday, Nov. 14, with first serve at 1 p.m. CT from Wilkinson Hall in Bloomington, Ind.
