Fresh after No. 1 Nebraska’s swift sweep of Arizona, Huskers head coach Dani Busboom Kelly didn’t mince words.
Yes, the Huskers are undefeated at 10-0 with six of those victories coming in straight sets, but she was less than pleased with a few things in Nebraska’s nonconference finale.
“I thought our defense tonight was pretty lackluster,” she said. “That’s gonna be a big focus this week. We’ve gotta be better defensively. I think our serving can also improve — which, that really goes hand-in-hand with defense. When you’re serving tough, your defense is much crisper.”
What was she disappointed by?
All of it — namely, blocking, digging and opponent hitting percentage.
Nebraska only managed to block Arizona’s hitters three times on Saturday night — the Huskers’ season low. In Nebraska’s other five sweep victories, the Huskers had four blocks against Grand Canyon with the reserve lineup, nine against Cal, eight against Wright State, four against Lipscomb and nine against Stanford.
Nebraska’s 36 digs against Arizona were a season low, and Arizona’s hitting percentage came in at .250 — far and away the highest percentage any of Nebraska’s opponents have achieved this season.
“We didn’t make great adjustments like we have this year when a team’s gotten hot against us,” Busboom Kelly said, naming Arizona’s star outside Jordan Wilson, who registered 17 kills with a hitting percentage of .282. “I feel like we’ve been able to make adjustments and shut players down, or at least affect them, and we just didn’t do that tonight.”
Busboom Kelly made that message clear in the huddles, noting after the match that it was the most she’d gotten after her team all season.
“It’s all great if we’re hitting .400, but when we’re letting tips drop and nobody’s touching it and just out of position late on our block, it’s just not the way we want to play,” Busboom Kelly said.
All of that aside, Nebraska did make it through the nonconference slate unscathed. The Huskers – thanks to the scheduling of former coach John Cook — tallied wins against the nation’s No. 3, No. 6, No. 7, No. 18 and No. 22 teams at the time of the match.
But now, the real season begins: Big Ten play.
“Being able to leave tonight and be 10-0 with a really tough schedule, we don’t want to take that for granted,” Busboom Kelly said. “It’s really hard to win. We’ve been saying that all year. I don’t care who you are. It’s hard to win. There’s so many great teams now and great players all over the country, so I feel like we’re really well prepared.”
With Big Ten play on the horizon, here’s one more thing that’s stood out and one more thing that remains an unanswered question.
WHAT WE KNOW
The offense can fly
The Arizona match was the perfect example of this. When Nebraska is clicking offensively, watch out.
Every single front-row player had at least five successful swings.
All-American outside Harper Murray terminated 14 kills on 27 swings for a hitting percentage of .333, while opposite Virginia Adriano and middle Andi Jackson each had nine kills. Adriano hit .438 while Jackson hit .389. Outside Taylor Landfair’s eight kills equaled out to a hitting percentage of .267 and middle Rebekah Allick had an efficient night with seven kills and zero errors for a hitting percentage of .538.
“I have first-hand experience when you’re playing a team and all their hitters are clicking,” Jackson said. “It’s really, really tough because you have to honor every single one of them. So when we can do that on our side of the net, it just makes everyone’s job super easy. I know it makes the setter’s job super easy, but it’s also all kudos to our amazing passing.”
And then there’s setter Bergen Reilly, who was aggressive with her dump kills with a near-career high five kills on seven swings.
For context, Reilly has 21 kills on the season.
“It just becomes very overwhelming for other teams,” Jackson said of Reilly’s attacking. “Sometimes they adjust and sometimes they don’t, and I think that Bergen saw that it was working, and she took advantage of it. I mean, five kills as a setter is ridiculous, but why stop if it’s working?”
WHAT WE DON’T KNOW
Libero
Olivia Mauch and Laney Choboy both have received plenty of reps in the alternate-color jersey this season.
Of the 36 sets Nebraska has played this season, Mauch has been the libero for 16 (the last three against Kentucky, the last two against Utah, three against Grand Canyon, five vs. Creighton and three vs. Arizona) and Choboy has been the libero for 20 (four against Pitt, three against Stanford, three against Lipscomb, the first two against Kentucky, three against Wright State, three against Cal and the first two against Utah.)
Lately, Mauch has received the lion’s share of the libero opportunities — starting for Nebraska in that spot in the team’s latest wins over Grand Canyon, Creighton and Arizona.
Why the change lately?
Passing.
“I thought our passing had been a little shaky the last couple games and just not confident, so I thought maybe Liv could steady that out,” Busboom Kelly said of Mauch after the Creighton match.
Against Creighton, Mauch had seven assists, a service ace and 16 digs. Against Arizona, Mauch had five out-of-system assists and 11 digs.
Also against Arizona, Busboom Kelly said Nebraska “passed great” and hit their target number for good pass percentage. Jackson said Nebraska passed a 2.7 on a four-point scale against Arizona. (Passing numbers aren’t included on NCAA box scores, but are tracked internally and by VolleyMetrics. Sometimes those numbers are not the same.)
With Big Ten play on the horizon, don’t write off Choboy either. She’s an Energizer bunny and brings the juice on defense.
“It’s probably not the end of the libero jersey for Laney, and I’m sure Liv will get a chance to wear it a bunch more,” Busboom Kelly said Tuesday after the win over Creighton. “It’s hard because I look at them as if they’re both starters to me. I know one has to wear the jersey, but they’re both equally important to this team.”
WHAT’S NEXT
Nebraska hosts Michigan on Wednesday and Maryland on Saturday in the first week of conference play. After that, Nebraska heads to No. 13 Penn State on Oct. 3 and Rutgers on Oct. 4.
As of this writing, there are six Big Ten teams in the AVCA Top 25: No. 1 Nebraska, No. 7 Wisconsin, No. 11 Purdue, No. 12 Minnesota, No. 13 Penn State and No. 19 USC. Three other Big Ten teams receiving votes: UCLA, Indiana and Oregon.
“Going into Big Ten, we’re confident — 10-0,” Murray said. “Starting Big Ten play is always super fun and exciting, but it’s also a little bit of pressure because it’s starting to get real. We want to win three Big Ten championships in a row, so we have to take that seriously.
“It can be fun, but it gets hard with traveling, with school, all the things in between. I think we’re in a good place, but we just really have to stay focused.”
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Amie Just
Husker sports reporter/columnist
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