Three Takes: Nebraska swept Campbell in First Round of NCAA Tournament

No. 10 Nebraska swept the Campbell Fighting Camels 25-14, 25-14, 25-17 in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

The Huskers will face Florida State which swept Kansas State 25-20, 25-16, 25-17 on Friday.

Here are my three takes from Nebraska’s first-round win.

Nebraska is used to playing the best volleyball teams in the best overall volleyball conference in the country. When playing a team like Campbell, which is so much smaller than their usual opponent, there is a lot of adjustments to be made.

As we see in all sports, sometimes when an opponent is worse than you are, it is hard to not stoop to their level. Campbell is a good volleyball team and did great things in their conference but doesn’t have the firepower Nebraska has.

While the third set looked a little rocky with a few miscommunications and half of the Huskers’ hitting errors, NU pushed through and got the job done.

“I think that was a great game for us, especially being the first game of the tournament some of these games as (Cook) said, it’s a change of pace from what we’ve seen in the Big Ten,” middle blocker Lauren Stivrins said. “So, for us to come out here and still play at the level that we’re capable of playing, I think that’s huge for us and it’s gonna be huge for us going forward.”

Campbell head coach Greg Goral said the Fighting Camels are a good serving team but struggled to get Nebraska out-of-system.

Nebraska Head Coach John Cook said outside of the first pass and the one ace allowed, Nebraska did an almost perfect job of passing.

“We were putting the ball in a really good spot,” Cook said.

The Huskers started off the tournament with the Big South Conference champion and their competition is going to increase as they take on Florida State on Saturday.

“The serving is going to get tougher every week,” Cook said. “And we got to be able to handle it and put the ball, as we say, in the box so we can set our middles and run an offense.”

As for the match against Campbell, Nebraska’s two leading scorers were middle blockers. Lauren Stivrins had nine kills, hit .412 and six blocks. Kayla Caffey had seven kills, hit .214 with three blocks.

Nebraska hit .272 on the match and held the Fighting Camels to a -.022 clip. The defensive effort was spot on and the numbers reflect that.

The Fighting Camels won the Big South Conference championship for the first time in program history and participated in its first NCAA tournament match.

Goral has been at Campbell for nine seasons and said the conference trophy on his desk brings him a big smile when he remembers all the hard work he put into building the culture and recruiting players.

“If we’re going to go somewhere for our first-ever NCAA tournament appearance, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but somewhere where they truly appreciate volleyball,” Goral said. “To have 7,000 fans cheering when you do something well, regardless of the team, is a great feeling.”

Outside hitter Chloe Cook said she remembers watching Stivrins and Lexi Sun on TV in eighth grade and then was “staring at them across the net” on Friday.

“It’s just a really cool experience to be able to play volleyball among really respected players out there,” Cook said.

Campbell finished the season 21-10 and put up a good fight against Nebraska, even pushing them to four match points.

The Fighting Camels should be proud of themselves for a great season.