What I thought of Nebraska’s win over Creighton

Tuesday night was billed as a match for the ages in the Volleyball State Showdown.

No. 5 Nebraska. No. 9 Creighton. The first time in series history that the two teams faced one another as Top 10 ranked opponents. In a rivalry that Creighton had never won. Not even once.

Heading into Tuesday, Nebraska held the all-time ledger against Creighton at 22-0.

But could this Creighton team — one considered to be the best that Creighton has ever had since relaunching the program in 1994 — flip the script?

If there was a time to do it… Tuesday would be the night.

At first, it didn’t look like it. Nebraska commanded the first two sets with ease, winning those frames, 25-19 and 25-16.

However, Creighton stormed back with a vengeance, winning a hotly contested third match full of extra points and ran away with the fourth set to force a fifth.

Nebraska, though, avoided the upset, and pulled it out to win the fifth set, 15-10.

Here’s what stood out to me from Nebraska’s 5-set victory over Creighton.

Defense is what stood apart for Nebraska early. Being active on the block. Being active on digs. Being physical at the net. Being unafraid to make hustle plays.

Four different players had double-digit digs: All-American libero Lexi Rodriguez with 21, outside Harper Murray with 14, setter Bergen Reilly with 13 and defensive specialist Laney Choboy with 12.

At the net, Nebraska had 11 total blocks.

Middle Andi Jackson had eight block assists — a team-high. Others involved on the block were outside Lindsay Krause (5), Murray (4), middle Rebekah Allick (3) and Reilly (3).

Creighton had zero answers for Nebraska’s middle blockers early in the match as both Jackson and Allick were feasting on Tuesday.

Jackson finished the match with 15 kills and four attack errors on 29 swings for a team-high hitting percentage of .379 and added 18 blocks to tie to lead the team with 19 points.

Allick finished the match with nine kills and four attack errors for a hitting percentage of .333 and added three blocks for 10.5 total points.

The Huskers looked like they had all but given up in the fourth set. More on that later. But them coming out and throwing punches in the fifth to start the final frame, is something that will serve them well later.

There will be matches down the road — maybe even in the next few weeks — where they will need to dig deep.

Murray was everywhere on Tuesday. She played all six rotations. She had a team-high 57 swings. She had a service ace. She had 14 digs. She had four blocks. She had 19 points.

Was she perfect? No. She had six attack errors and had a hitting percentage of .175. She had a service error. She had two receiving errors. She had two blocking errors.

But she made a big impact on the match.

Did Nebraska lose the third set? Yes. But sets like that are what make volleyball so exhilarating.

Back and forth. Tense. High stakes. Little room for error.

Creighton had five set-point opportunities and Nebraska had four match-point opportunities in that frame, with Creighton ultimately coming out on top, 33-31, for the highest-scoring set in the rivalry’s history.

Every once in a while, there’s a marathon rally that feels like it takes forever, when in reality it takes less than a minute.

The 17th point of the first set for Nebraska was one of those rallies.

The serve from outside Lindsay Krause. An attempted dump on the second touch from Creighton’s Kendra Wait. A low dig from Nebraska’s Merritt Beason, bumping it up to Bergen Reilly who back-sets it to outside Harper Murray for the swing. Creighton keeps it up, and Norah Sis swings into Nebraska’s block. The ball ricochets toward Reilly, who bumps it across the court to Lexi Rodriguez, who bump sets to Murray. Murray’s swing flies toward Creighton’s back row and the Bluejays kept it alive — sending it back over to Nebraska’s side of the net on an overpass. Reilly set the ball on the first touch, sending it toward Rodriguez for the bump set to opposite Merritt Beason. Creighton handles Beason’s swing and stays in system — swinging toward Nebaska’s back row, but Krause dives for the dig, popping it up toward the net. Creighton hammers down the overpass, but Beason drops to the floor for the dig, setting up Reilly for the swing. Creighton handles it and stays in system to set up Sis for the swing. But Rodriguez kept it alive with a back row set to Reilly, who found Murray for her third swing of the rally, which terminates right in front of Creighton libero Maddy Bilinovic.

That’s a longggg rally. And it took roughly 40 seconds.

Nebraska’s reds vs. Creighton’s blues is one of my favorite uniform games ever. And yet, we were treated to Nebraska in white and Creighton in navy.

Once Creighton won that marathon third set, 33-31, it was as if Nebraska lost its mojo.

Backs against the wall. And they misfired. Continually. To quote Creighton’s Kirsten Bernthal Booth, “it was ugly for them.”

Nebraska hit minus-.024 in the fourth set — the worst hitting percentage for a single set for Nebraska since the second set of the national championship loss to Texas last season (minus-.036).

Compare that to the other four sets: .250 in the first set, .333 in the second set, .260 in the third set and .444 in the fifth set.

Cue the “one of these things is not like the others” tune.

There was a moment in the fifth set where half the team on the court was celebrating the point before the point was actually won. Lindsay Krause ultimately ended up terminating on the kill while some of her teammates were celebrating.

Lucky break for Nebraska. Creighton could have easily made Nebraska pay for that.

NCAA women’s volleyball teams are only allowed 15 substitutions per set, which can pose a problem for teams that either run a 6-2 offense, teams that rotate two defensive specialists into the back row for pin hitters and in sets that go extra points.

Well, Nebraska’s third set with Creighton went to 33-31. And Nebraska — who rotated Olivia Mauch in for Lindsay Krause and Laney Choboy in for Merritt Beason in the back row on Tuesday — ran out of substitutions in the third set, so the scrappy, 5-foot-3 do-it-all defensive specialist Laney Choboy had to rotate to the front row as a pin hitter.

It’s not ideal, but it’s not the first time that’s happened for Nebraska.

Recently, serving specialist Maisie Boesiger had to play in the front row in the NCAA Sweet 16 match against Oregon two years ago after Nebraska — while running a 6-2 with Nicklin Hames and Anni Evans — ran out of substitutions.