Coach John Cook said earlier in the week that it doesn’t matter how you play at this time of year, as long as you win three games by two points. His team played well Friday and did more than just win.
“We pretty much suffocated (Ball State) with our serve, block, and defense,” said Cook. “We gotta clean up a couple things for (Saturday) but good opening first round of the NCAA Tournament.”
That good opening did come with Ball State(20-12, 11-5 MAC) jumping out in the first two games to leads of 3-2 and 7-5, but Nebraska(26-4, 17-3 Big Ten) eliminated those with runs of their own. The Huskers hit .548 and .333 in the first two sets to win each 25-18 and 25-13. The Cardinals hit just .071 and .029.
“It just feels like we’re flowing and we’re doing great on both sides of the ball,” said sophomore setter Nicklin Hames. “It feels like we’re in the zone. We have a lot of fun when we’re having great offensive nights and we’re just laughing and everyone’s taking great swings.
“It was a lot of fun tonight.”
That fun continued in the final game where Nebraska didn’t have to weather an early Ball State run. Instead, the Huskers raced out to 6-1 lead before jumping out 17-5. Big Red would earn the sweep on a 25-10 third game win.
“We worked really hard in practice this week to get better and I think that really showed out on the court,” said Hames. “We put a lot of work in and for it to show it feels really good.”
Nebraska hit .425 while not being blocked for the entirety of the match. Hames had 34 assists on the night. Madi Kubik and Lauren Stivrins each had 11 kills while Lexi Sun added nine.
Ball State was held to a season-low .010 attack percentage.
“Getting this one out of the way and doing it pretty convincingly is good,” said Cook. “You wanna get out and get on to the next match.”
Earlier in the day Missouri(22-7, 13-5 SEC) beat Northern Iowa(24-11, 17-1 MVC) in straight sets, 25-11, 13, 14. The Huskers and the Tigers will play Saturday at 7 pm for a chance at advancing to the Regional round December 13-14.
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