Before No. 12 Nebraska jogged onto the court to sweep Iowa on Saturday, Head Coach John Cook had an important message to his team after three impressive games in the Big Ten on Friday night.
“There are no easy nights, so mentally, we got to come out and go hard every point,” Cook said.
On Friday, all three of the Big Ten volleyball matches went to five sets: No. 2 Wisconsin lost to Maryland, No. 7 Purdue upset No. 3 Ohio State, and No. 9 Minnesota beat Michigan.
Nebraska (every Big Ten team, really) has a tough road to a Big Ten championship, but starting 2-0 in the conference will only help.
Here are my three takes from Nebraska’s sweep over Iowa (25-17, 26-25, 25-21):
Nebraska’s outside hitters Madi Kubik, Ally Batenhorst and Lexi Sun on the left and Lindsay Krause all completed and played their best collective game of the season.
“All of them did a fantastic job tonight of managing and managing out-of-system and in-system and mixing up their shots,” Cook said of the outsides.
Kubik led the team with a double-double of 15 kills and 14 digs. She hit the lowest of the outside hitters at .189 with eight errors on 37 swings. Kubik had three consecutive kills in the third set to give Nebraska a 24-20 lead.
Batenhorst had six kills in two sets with one error. The freshman hit .333 before Sun replaced her in set three.
Cook said he planned on Sun and middle blocker Kalynn Meyer playing in the third set to get experience and confidence for when Nebraska needs more depth further into the season.
Sun didn’t start against Northwestern on Wednesday nor vs. Iowa on Saturday. Against the Wildcats, she entered in set three and had three blocks.
“She put on a blocking clinic at Northwestern,” Cook said. “And tonight, I don’t think she got one good set. But she got three kills, hit 375 and managed really well, was smart and so that’s the experience that she has.”
On the opposite side, Krause had her second consecutive game hitting .500. Against Iowa, she had 12 kills and one error. The freshman mainly played on the left side in high school and is transitioning to hitting on the right.
“She’s getting more comfortable over there,” Cook said. “We made a decision to put Lindsay in the lineup because she competes, she talks, she does all the things that typically freshmen don’t do and she’s a warrior.”
Krause and the Huskers’ other three outside hitters were warriors against Iowa. While it wasn’t a perfect effort, they came up big when their team needed them.
After an 8-1 scoring run set Nebraska apart early in the first set, the Hawkeyes kept the next two matches close. Set two had four lead changes and 11 tie scores and set three had two lead changes and three tie scores.
Nebraska needs to learn how to fight and grind out close sets and matches in a conference with as much competition as the Big Ten.
Kubik was happy with Nebraska’s fight against Iowa.
“I’m really proud of us and the way that we can keep composure when things get tight and that we can just find a way to get killed and to win a match,” Kubik said.
Nebraska’s passing “broke down” after the first set, according to Cook. He said Iowa has the best serving numbers they have seen so far.
Cook said setter Nicklin Hames, who had 40 assists and six digs, did a “great job” setting on Saturday, although she wasn’t getting great passes.
“She did a great job, especially when the passes weren’t there,” he said. “If we can get Nicklin the ball, we could run more middle and have a little more diversified attack.”
Even though Nebraska didn’t pass up to standard in the second and third sets, “we made it work,” Cook said.
It’s essential for the Huskers to learn to work past tough servicing teams because they will encounter that often in the Big Ten.
“Maybe it’s not perfect every time and maybe it isn’t a perfect bump set, tooling block whatever but I think we are starting to develop a really deep trust in each other that we can find ways to make it work,” Kubik said.
Nebraska started Big Ten conference play with the two losingest teams in the conference. And it was just what they needed.
After losing three consecutive games to ranked opponents, the Huskers need to have matches where they could work out their issues in game situations with a little bit of room for error. Having a consistent game-to-game lineup will help with that.
Even though Nebraska beat Northwestern and Iowa, there were still some close sets in both matches. The Wildcats won the third set against NU 25-23.
The Huskers still have a lot to work out. It’s impossible to know what this team is capable of until they are face to face with some of the best teams in the league.
But, winning, even against opponents with losing records, is just the right medicine Nebraska needs to gain confidence.
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