Twenty-One Swings, Zero Errors: Nebraska Sweeps No. 20 Baylor

Husker Nation, a sweep is not always a stroll — and Friday night was the proof.

No. 1 Nebraska beat No. 20 Baylor 25-20, 25-22, 26-24 in front of a sellout of 10,497 at John Cook Arena at the Bob Devaney Sports Center. The Huskers are 6-0. Baylor dropped to 5-2.

Three sets, one hour and 41 minutes, and a scoreline that hides how hard the last one was.

The stat of the night

Manaia Ogbechie put the ball down 12 times on 21 swings and never once hit it out or into the net. A career high, a .571 hitting percentage, and zero errors.

Think about what that asks of somebody. Twenty-one attempts against a ranked blocking front, and not one of them wrong.

Harper Murray matched the 12 kills for a season high of her own. Virginia Adriano added eight and hit .385. As a team Nebraska hit .315 against Baylor’s .235.

The setter had a night too

Bergen Reilly put up a season-high 41 assists, added nine digs, and led the match with three aces — including the very last serve of it.

That is how this ended: not with a kill, but with Reilly serving a ball that nobody touched.

The third set is the story

Nebraska led 22-19 after a Murray kill and it should have been routine from there. It wasn’t. Baylor ran off four straight points to lead 23-22 — a top-20 team, on the road, one point from forcing a fourth.

The Huskers answered by taking four of the last five. Ogbechie ended the rally that mattered, and Reilly served the match away.

Back in the second set Baylor had gone up 7-3 before Nebraska rattled off five in a row — the 16th time this season the Huskers have scored five or more consecutive points. That is a team that does not panic, and it is becoming a habit rather than a moment.

The floor

Laney Choboy and Olivia Mauch each dug 13 balls, both season highs. That is the quiet half of a sweep — the half nobody posts a clip of, and the reason Baylor never hit better than .359 in a set.

Where this leaves them

Six matches. Six sweeps. Eighteen sets played, eighteen sets won.

Nebraska has not dropped a set this season — and the six that count came two at home, two on the road, and two on neutral floors. Two of them were ranked, and one of those was No. 2 Texas, swept in Las Vegas. This is not a soft 6-0.

Georgia Tech this afternoon at 2 p.m., back at the Devaney, on Nebraska Public Media and B1G+ with the Huskers Radio Network on the call.

Husker Nation, they are making it look easy. Friday was a reminder that it isn’t.