No. 2 Nebraska volleyball survives five-set battle with No. 10 Purdue

The statistics sheet often tells you everything you need to know about a sporting competition. The box score for No. 2 Nebraska volleyball's five-set win over No. 10 Purdue on Friday was a different story.

The Boilermakers (12-4, 3-2 Big Ten) hit over .300 and outscored Nebraska by 10, but the Huskers (15-1, 5-0) found a way to withstand the onslaught and mount a comeback. Come from behind in the fifth game with a 25-22, 22-25, 23-25, 25-22, 17-15 victory in front of a juicy crowd at the Devaney Center.

“Welcome to Big Ten volleyball,” coach John Cook said. “Purdue played great tonight. It was a heavyweight fight and it's almost a shame that someone had to lose it. They made a great effort tonight. I was very impressed with Eva (Hudson) and Chloe (Chicoine); They put on a show tonight. And I still don’t know exactly how we won it, but we’ll do it.”

Cook said the Huskers were out of sync offensively all night, as evidenced by their 31 attack errors, but Nebraska still hit .242 as Bergen Reilly dished out a career-best 60 assists to go along with 17 digs, a game-high were.

“She’s just so consistent in her behavior, and I think that’s great for a setter,” Merritt Beason said of the second-year setter. “It's pretty hard to play with the setter when it's up and down because you're like, 'I don't really know what to expect from you, I don't know if you're mad at me, I know that “Don't.” “I don't know if you're mad at yourself.” But that's what she's really good at, and that's what you have to be when you touch the ball at every single point. She's just so calm and so consistent through the ups and downs, and I think that's what makes her so special.

“Of course we can talk about her sets and we know they are great, but I think her behavior helps us the most in those moments and it is that behavior that also makes us as batsmen feel like she has confidence in us .” ”

Beason was the recipient of nearly a third of those assists and finished the game with a team-best 22 kills for a team-best .278 hitting percentage while leading the team with 54 attacks. Harper Murray added 17 kills while hitting .209 and recorded 50 serve reps as the Boilermakers targeted her throughout the night.

Andi Jackson returned to the lineup after missing last week's games with an undisclosed injury and posted 14 kills on .429 batting average and four blocks. She connected on 10 of her first 11 swings, forcing the Boilermakers to give her more defensive attention as the game progressed. Rebekah Allick, middle blocker, added 10 kills on .333 hitting.

Lindsay Krause got the start, although she and Taylor Landfair took turns going back and forth as both struggled to finish the race. Krause finished with four kills while hitting .050, while Landfair added six kills while hitting .125. Cook said he's still looking for someone to “show they want it” at the OH1 spot.

“Lindsay was a little hesitant tonight, Taylor was hesitant,” Cook said. “And then Taylor got a couple kills in the fourth game, and one in the fifth game, but if you look at the combination, Taylor had six, Lindsay had 10 kills. Eva had 26, so we need to get more production from there.”

Hudson (26 kills while hitting .349) and Chicoine (22 kills while hitting .327) were anything but timid. The Huskers only recorded five stuff blocks all night, while the Boilermakers' dynamic outside duo found success most of the night.

“They’re really good players,” Jackson said. “You have to give credit where credit is due. They're very smart, they had a lot of shots and I think at this level sometimes you see underdogs who really only have one shot and once you take that away from them you see them start to switch off. But they did a really good job of being consistent, and when we took something away from them, they found another way to score points.”

Purdue hit .311, but errors gave Nebraska 19 points from the service line, allowing the Huskers to pick up the slack in offensive efficiency. The Huskers missed just seven serves and outscored Purdue three games to one.

“I think one thing I'm really proud of on this team is that when our defense isn't going like it always is, we usually shut down, and we rely on that,” Beason said. “That's what happened at SMU, they went offensive and we were like, 'What do we do?' But we didn’t do that tonight and we worked on that.”

Both teams found it difficult to consistently take on the opposing defense at the start of the first set before they were able to break through. In the set there were nine draws and two lead changes with little margin until the end. Jackson took the lead as the game progressed and sacked three times on four turnovers, giving the Huskers a 24-21 lead. Purdue won the next point, but Reilly passed to Beason from the back row to end the game.

Purdue outscored Nebraska .324 to .282, but the Boilermakers had four service errors while Nebraska was error-free from the line and scored an ace. Upon her return to the court, Jackson went 5-for-5.

“It was really fun,” Jackson said. “Honestly it felt like I never left just because the team was so supportive while I was away and even sitting on the bench in street clothes I just felt so included because the team was just amazing does work and makes you feel surrounded by all their love.”

Early in the second set, the teams battled back and forth until Purdue went on a 4-0 run – helped by three errors by Nebraska – to take a 12-8 lead. The Boilermakers pushed the lead to six at 19-13 before the Huskers began to fade, scoring four straight goals to get within two points.

However, Chicoine dropped the ball in the middle of the donut for a kill, and then two consecutive attack errors allowed Nebraska to extend the lead back to five. Purdue traded sideouts to secure set point at 24-19. The Huskers scored three straight kills from there before Hudson tied it.

Purdue continued to perform at a high level offensively, hitting .278. Nebraska hit .146 with eight errors in the set. Murray led the way with five kills on 10 clean swings, but the rest of the team managed just nine kills on 31 attacks. Landfair replaced Krause midway through the set and produced one kill and two errors in five attacks.

Purdue used a 4-0 run to break an early tie in the third, taking a 9-5 lead as Nebraska continued to sputter offensively. The Huskers rallied five times before rallying to a 20-18 lead with a 5-1 run and four kills.

However, Purdue responded with a 5-1 run of its own, including two consecutive attack errors by Jackson (her first of the game) to close out the set and take a 2-1 lead.

Purdue hit .364 in the set as its outsides continued to dominate. Nebraska hit .282 behind five kills from Beason.

After Krause played the third set, Landfair was back in the lineup for the fourth. The Huskers got off to a great start, taking an 8-4 lead. They extended the lead to five a few times, including when the score was 17-12. The Boilermakers recorded blocks on three straight turnovers to cut the lead to two, but Landfair and Beason both followed up with big kills to put the Huskers back in control.

Purdue saved a few set points as time expired, but Beason tied the game with a kill in the back row after a timeout. Cook opted to give the senior captain more back-row duties against the Boilermakers than she had previously played, and the move paid off.

“We've been working on it and preparing for this match because we knew it was going to be a close match and we're just trying to find more kills,” Cook said. “What they did was lock Andi in with two blockers and let our left sides play one-on-one, and those guys struggled tonight. So there was a free lane in the middle and we probably scored big numbers with our back row attack tonight. We worked hard on it this week because we knew we would need it tonight.”

Nebraska won despite hitting just .114 in the set. Beason led the way with another five kills. Purdue hit .147 and fumbled five times from the service line.

Purdue hit the net again to open the fifth period, but then followed it up with a 3-0 run to take the lead. Nebraska tied the score nine times before finally breaking through with a Jackson slide kill for a 13-12 lead.

Purdue turned the tables with a 3-1 run to secure match point, triggering a Nebraska timeout. Cook replaced Beason for Laney Choboy in the back row a rotation earlier to increase her firepower, and the move paid off as she immediately tied it with a kill in the back row that shot the Purdue libero out of her face .

The Huskers scored a point on a net violation on the next rally, then Reilly went back to Beason in the front row to end the game.

“She made some big kills,” Cook said. “She struggled early, struggled blocking, struggled serving, but she showed why she is a first-team All-American. She performed some great pieces for us there. That last kill was a great kill and that’s what you expect from your first team players.”

Purdue didn't commit an attack error in the fifth and hit .481, but the Boilermakers failed four times from the service line and Nebraska hit .458.

The Huskers are in for a quick turnaround as Rutgers (5-11, 0-5) will visit the Devaney Center on Saturday night. Kenzie Dyrstad, a Papillion-La Vista South graduate, leads the Scarlet Knights with 2.93 per set.

First serve is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the game will be available on Big Ten Plus.