Shorthanded, Second-Ranked Nebraska Sweeps Illinois in First Big Ten Road Match

The Huskers earned its first conference road win of the season despite the absence of a key starter.

Nebraska volleyball players celebrate a point at Illinois. / Nebraska Athletics

Statistically, Thursday’s Big Ten match between the No. 2 Nebraska volleyball team and Illinois should have been much closer. 

Inside a hot and sold-out Huff Hall in Champaign, the Illini outpaced the Huskers (13-1, 3-0) in both kills (43-41) and digs (45-44), but it was NU who produced a cleaner sheet, leveraging its aggressive serving and 12-3 block advantage en route to a 25-18, 25-22, 25-17 sweep to earn its first Big Ten road win of the season. 

That happened despite the absence of star sophomore middle Andi Jackson who was ruled out prior to the match due to an undisclosed injury, according to the Huskers Radio Network. Jackson has exploded in her second season in Lincoln, hitting .475 on the season out of 200 swings which is fifth in the country. She's also averaging 2.66 kills per set while being second on the team with 48 total blocks behind only Rebekah Allick. 

Nebraska coach John Cook did not give a status update on Jackson during his post match radio interview. 

“We talked about it before that it’s going to be ugly, they’re going to do some really good things and we just got to weather the storm,embrace the ugly part and find a way to win,” Cook said. 

And that’s why Thursday affirmed Cook’s decision to dip into the transfer portal for depth. The addition of San Diego graduate transfer Leyla Blackwell came up big against the Illini (8-5, 0-3) as she recorded six kills and hit .385 in her sixth appearance of the season. 

Minnesota transfer and 2022 Big Ten Player of the Year Taylor Landfair started in front of Lindsey Krause. She formed a fearsome trio with Merritt Beason and Harper Murray in front of the largest crowd in Huff Hall history. Landfair totaled eight kills on a ..207 clip while Beason led offensively with 10 kills on a .421 hitting percentage with seven blocks. Murray added nine kills on a .348 clip with 11 digs for a double-double as her all-around game continues to grow.

Fellow middle blocker Rebekah Allick dominated at the net with a match-high nine blocks while chipping in four kills. Libero Lexi Rodriguez led the team with 14 digs while setter Bergen Reilly dished out 30 assists and eight digs. 

Errors were a big proponent to the Illini’s downfall. Despite one of the best jump servers in the country in setter Brooke Mosher, Illinois committed 11 service errors with only two aces. For the Huskers, they put down five aces, including two from Kennedi Orr, as NU finished with only one error. That trend continued into the attacking numbers as Nebraska hit .305 with nine errors on 105 swings. The Illini hit lower at .217 with double the amount of errors (18) compared to the Huskers. 

“We were stressing them and I could see the confidence in our servers tonight. Our one serve was barely out,” Cook said. “...We passed really well tonight, except for the run in game two with Mosher serving.” 

It took some time to adjust for the Huskers' new lineup as the Illini (8-5, 0-3) shot out to a 5-1 lead to begin the match. A balanced attack eventually swarmed Illinois as a 12-3 run put the Huskers ahead 12-7 before pulling away. 

Set two was back-and-forth between the squads. Trailing 21-19 to the Illini, four consecutive points gave NU a 23-21 lead. Mosher earned a kill, but Landfair tallied a point before a Kennedi Orr service ace locked up the set. 

Illinois held a 10-8 lead in the third, but overcame the deficit and kept an arm’s reach over the Illini to come away as Nebraska earned its 11th-straight win and ninth sweep of the season. 

Illinois was led by All-Big Ten performer Raina Terry who recorded a match-high 13 kills while Averie Hernandez added 11 tallies. 

The Huskers return home on Sunday to host Iowa at 2 p.m. CDT. The match will be broadcast on Nebraska Public Media.

Box score

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