The Blackshirts

Volleyball

Seventeen Times in Four Years: Nebraska Fills Another Building and Sweeps

Bergen Reilly of Nebraska, in red, jumping to set the ball at the net in front of a packed crowd dressed in South Dakota State blue.
Photo courtesy Nebraska Athletics

Husker fans, here is a stat that tells you what this program has become.

5,113 people came to First Bank & Trust Arena on Wednesday night. That is the largest crowd ever to watch a South Dakota State volleyball match.

And it is the 17th time in four seasons that a school has set its all-time attendance record because Nebraska came to town.

Seventeen. In four years.

The match itself

No. 1 Nebraska swept the Jackrabbits, 25-18, 25-20, 25-15.

The Huskers are 3-0. They hit .267 and held South Dakota State to .011 — eleven thousandths, a number that is hard to produce even on purpose. SDSU falls to 1-3.

Nebraska also blocked 10 to South Dakota State’s eight. That is the second straight match the Huskers have hit double figures at the net.

  • Teraya Sigler — a season-high 10 kills on .320, plus four digs and three blocks
  • Skyler Pierce — a career-high seven kills
  • Virginia Adriano — five kills
  • Bergen Reilly — 32 assists

Reilly moves into the top five

Those 32 assists carried Bergen Reilly past Nikki Stricker, who set at Nebraska from 1990 to 1993, and into fifth place all time in program history.

She now has 3,817 career assists. She is a senior. There is a lot of season left.

How it went

Set one was tied at 4 before Nebraska pulled to 15-11, helped along by a Reilly ace. Consecutive Jackrabbit errors made it 20-13. Harper Murray ended it — a kill for 24-18, then an ace to close it out. Nebraska hit .214 in the set. South Dakota State hit .000.

Set two was the competitive one. Nebraska led 9-4 after two straight Manaia Ogbechie kills, then SDSU came back and actually led 15-14 at the media timeout. Tied at 19, the Huskers ran off five in a row — block assists from Adriano and Andi Jackson got them to set point — and took it 25-20.

Set three was over early. Nebraska led 6-1, pushed it to 14-8 on a Sigler kill, and reached 20 first on a Pierce kill at 20-12.

Chicago next

The road trip continues, and it gets considerably grander.

  • Friday vs. DePaul — Wintrust Arena, Chicago
  • Sunday vs. Missouri — Wrigley Field, in the Big Ten/SEC Volleyball Challenge

Husker fans, three matches into the season Nebraska has played in an NFL stadium, an NBA arena, a full house in Brookings — and on Sunday, a baseball cathedral. They have not been home yet, and they have not lost a set since the season started.

  • Volleyball
  • Program