The Blackshirts

Volleyball

Nebraska Went to the Cowboys' Stadium and Didn't Lose a Set

Nebraska players in white gathered at the net celebrating a point, while a Florida player in blue sits on the court behind them, in a packed AT&T Stadium.
Photo courtesy Nebraska Athletics

Husker fans, two ranked opponents in an NFL stadium. Four sets. Nebraska won all four and never once looked in the rearview mirror.

No. 1 Nebraska won the inaugural Spikes Under the Lights on Thursday night at AT&T Stadium, sweeping No. 17 Florida and then No. 11 SMU without dropping a set. Nearly 40,000 people watched.

First, Florida made them work

Nebraska 2, Florida 0 — 21-19, 21-18.

Both sets were live late. The Huskers hit .220, held Florida to .169, and put up seven blocks.

The opening set was tied at 19 before Manaia Ogbechie ended it with back-to-back kills. In the second, Florida took its biggest lead of the night at 13-10 — and Nebraska answered with a 5-0 run and never gave it back. Virginia Adriano’s kill and Teraya Sigler’s ace closed it out.

Sigler had six kills. Adriano and Andi Jackson had five each. Bergen Reilly ran the offense for 19 assists. Olivia Mauch dug up nine.

Then they buried SMU

Nebraska 2, SMU 0 — 21-12, 21-11.

The Huskers hit .339 as a team and held the Mustangs to .068. That is not a scoreline. That is a team being taken apart.

  • Sigler — 7 kills, 5 digs
  • Harper Murray — 6 kills, 5 digs
  • Reilly — 21 assists, 2 blocks
  • Mauch — 7 digs
  • Ogbechie, Jackson, Skyler Pierce — 3 kills each

Nebraska led 12-2 in the first set. SMU clawed back to within six; the Huskers answered with five of the next seven and took it 21-12.

The second was tied at six, and then it wasn’t. Four straight points — Ogbechie, Adriano, Sigler, and a Murray ace — made it 14-8. Another 4-0 run made it 18-9. Ryan Hunter and Murray finished it.

What they actually won

The purse was $1 million across the event, and the reporting has been loose about who got what. Here is the split:

  • $200,000 appearance fee — paid to all four teams
  • $150,000 to the winner

So Nebraska left Arlington with $350,000, not a million. Still the largest prize ever put up in women’s college sports, and still a good night’s work.

And it doesn’t count

Worth repeating, because it will get lost: these were exhibition matches. Nothing from Thursday goes in the record book. Not the sweeps, not Sigler’s 13 kills across two matches, not the .339, not the win.

Nebraska is 0-0.

Now they do it again, and this time it counts

Nebraska flies straight from one made-for-television showcase to another. The Players Era Volleyball Showcase opens Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas — Nebraska, Texas, TCU and UNLV, doubleheaders both days.

  • Saturday vs. UNLV — 7:00 p.m. CT on FS1
  • Sunday vs. Texas — 2:30 p.m. CT on FOX

The difference: Nebraska calls this one the official start of the regular season. Every serve counts.

Two showcase events in four days, four matches, and the only ones that go on the record are the ones against Texas and UNLV.

Husker fans, the exhibition went perfectly. Now we find out what it was worth.

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