Volleyball
The First One They've Lost: Nebraska Drops a Set, Then Buries Georgia Tech
Husker Nation, somebody finally took a set off them — and then found out what happens next.
No. 1 Nebraska beat Georgia Tech 3-1 on Saturday afternoon in front of 10,497 at John Cook Arena at the Bob Devaney Sports Center: 24-26, 25-17, 25-18, 25-12. The Huskers are 7-0. Georgia Tech, who came in at 8-2 and played like it, leave 8-3.
Two hours, and only the first forty minutes of it were close.
The set that ended the streak
Nebraska had not lost a set all season. Georgia Tech took the first one.
And they earned it. The Yellow Jackets led 9-7 on an ace, went on a 7-2 run to make it 18-13 and forced a Nebraska timeout. The Huskers answered with a 7-1 run of their own to level at 20-20 — then gave up another ace and trailed 24-21, set point.
Three straight Nebraska points forced extra. A kill and a block ended it 26-24.
That is a good team playing well, in a building where visitors usually stop playing well by the second media timeout.
Then it stopped being a contest
Georgia Tech led the second set 5-0. They led it 10-4.
Nebraska went on an 11-3 run, capped by a Virginia Adriano kill, and led 15-13 at the media timeout. Three Skyler Pierce kills made it 21-15. Georgia Tech scored two more points in the set.
The third followed the same shape — Nebraska out to 7-2, then 15-6 on a Harper Murray kill, a brief Georgia Tech push to 15-11, and a Bergen Reilly ace to settle it at 18-12.
The fourth wasn’t a set so much as a statement. Georgia Tech led 8-7. Nebraska scored fifteen of the next sixteen points.
The number that tells the whole afternoon
Nebraska’s hitting percentage, set by set:
| Set 1 | Set 2 | Set 3 | Set 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| .219 | .348 | .290 | .526 |
They got better every time they walked back out. Georgia Tech went the other way — .370 in the first set, then .000, .162, and minus .080 in the fourth.
For the match: Nebraska .324, Georgia Tech .112.
Ogbechie and Pierce
Manaia Ogbechie tied her career high with 12 kills on .526 hitting and added five blocks — her second straight match in double figures. A week ago she put 12 down against Baylor without a single error.
Skyler Pierce set a career high of her own with 10 kills, and hers closed the match.
Bergen Reilly had 41 assists and 13 digs — her second double-double of the season, and the second match running she has put up 41. Andi Jackson hit .545. Olivia Mauch anchored the back row for the second straight match.
What it means
A streak was always going to end. Better it ends in September, at home, against a team good enough to deserve it, than in November against somebody you have to see again.
And the response is the part worth keeping: down a set to a side hitting .370, Nebraska won the next three by eight, seven and thirteen.
Creighton on Wednesday, six o’clock, inside a sold-out Pinnacle Bank Arena, on the Big Ten Network. Thirteenth in the country, and they will have watched that first set very closely.
Husker Nation, we just found out what this team does when something goes wrong.