Three Takes from Nebraska Volleyball’s victory over Kansas State

Nebraska volleyball endured its first test of the season against Kansas State and sophomore setter Anni Evans lead a comeback campaign in the fourth set to help the Huskers to a 25-17, 27-25, 11-25, 25-22 set victory.

Here are three takes on the Husker’s victory over a talented Wildcats team.

Nebraska volleyball faced its first challenge of the 2021 season. With so many new faces on the team, there was a little more uncertainty coming into the game than usual. However, this squad proved to be up for the task.

The team hit .462 as a whole in the first set led by freshman opposite hitter Lindsay Krause. Krause had a team-high five kills on eight attacks with no errors and had a .625 hitting percentage.

Middle blocker Kayla Caffey added four kills on five swings and no errors for a team-high hitting percentage of .800 and two blocks. Caffey finished with 13 kills, one error and hit .632 on the night.

The second set was the test of how well NU could respond in a close game. Nebraska had to continue to battle in a close match and got the job done.

But the real challenges came in sets third and four. The Huskers were completely dominated in the third set, losing 25-11. K-State went on a 12-0 scoring run with NU out-of-system.

Outside hitter Madi Kubik said NU “let up” on its block defense during the third set.

Cook said both Krause and Orr “hit a wall” in the third set. Krause had, as Cook remembered, five straight errors. He wasn’t sure if that was due to bad sets from Orr.

“But she’s got to learn to deal if she gets a tough set, not just make an error,” Cook said. “but she takes good swings and that kid is a competitor.”

Nebraska responded with an electric fourth set to defeat K-State.

Cook returned to the 5-1 system on Saturday against K State after running a 6-2 system on Friday vs. Colgate.

Orr was the starting setter and contributed 106 assists, one blocks and 10 digs. She struggled behind the service line with three errors on nine serves.

Evans entered late in the third set for the two final points and came in with a 12-6 NU deficit in the fourth set. Cook said on Thursday that Evans is too short to play front row but on Saturday he thought the tradeoff was worth it. She had 12 assists in the fourth match.

“It’s something Anni will the rest of her life, that comeback because that’s a heck of a comeback,” Cook said. “She did great, she was in the zone.

“Every set was perfect,” he continued. “And that’s why I’d like to know her hitting percentage with her setting I mean, had to be astronomical.”

In fact, in Nebraska’s last 19 points, 12 were assists by Evans, six were K-State hitting errors and Akana added one ace.

“She did a great job and came in and brought energy and brought fire,” Kubik said. “She played her role. And I think she did a great job and really helped us win that match.”

Evans sat for two hours before leading NU back to win set four and the match. Cook said it’s “really hard” for setters to sit that long and then play.

“Setters need rhythm and so it was really hard,” Cook said. “but she really trusted it and she’s a tough kid and she’s a good little setter.”

During a “disappointing” third match, Cook said they ‘lost the crowd.’

“When K-state called their first timeout, I think it was 18-16. And I said, you guys tied this up, get a couple more points, this crowd is gonna go nuts,” he said. “I said, you got to get the crowd back into it and they did.”

The Devaney Sports Center roared to life as Nebraska came back and beat K-State 25-22 in the final set.

“Anni inspired us they played really hard for her, she got us back in a rhythm,” Cook said. “I think K-State felt the pressure of the crowd because the crowd got into it. We got the momentum back and made a heck of a run.”

Caffey said she felt the momentum shift back to her team the more the crowd got involved.

“I think there are matches last year that if we would have had the crowd, the matches might have gone differently,” Kubik said in agreement. “It’s an insane impact on the way it feels to play.”

Cook had complete faith that his team would beat K-State, even with a 25-11 loss in set three. And having faith is exactly the lesson Cook wants to teach his players.

“I had a good feeling of even if it went five we would win because I trust Madi and Lexi and the middles and Kenzie Knuckles that those guys would just find a way to will it and but they did it in game four.”

Learning to fight for a victory but also trust that it will come is an important lesson for the freshman, Cook said.

“It’s a match like this, I don’t know if we could have scripted it any better, to come back because this will give them a deep confidence that ‘Hey, no matter how bad it’s going, we can still pull it out’.”